The ministry of absolution : an appeal for its more general use with due regard to the liberty of the individual

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THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

THE MINISTRY OF
ABSOLUTION

AN APPEAL FOR ITS MORE GENERAL

USE WITH DUE REGARD TO THE

LIBERTY OF THE INDIVIDUAL

BY

CYRIL BICKERSTETH, M.A.

OP THE COMMUNITY OF THE RESURBECTION

REGIS

BIBL. MAJ.
COLLEGE '

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YOEK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1912

All rights reserved

51052

PREFACE

IN order to indicate the point of view from which
this little book has been written, I venture to
give some extracts from two lectures delivered at
Worcester in November 1898 by Dr. Charles Gore,
Bishop of Oxford, who was then Canon of West
minster and Superior of the Community of the
Resurrection. They are fully reported in the
Guardian (Nov. 9 and 16, 1898). In the first Dr.
Gore sketches the history of the penitential dis
cipline of the Church at large, and throws a good
deal of light on the subject discussed in Chapter
XI. of this volume. In the second he speaks of the
penitential discipline of the Church of England since
the Reformation, with some very practical sugges
tions as to the duty of the clergy : —

" Our conditions are different from those of the early
Church, or the mediaeval Church, or the Church of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. How are all these
principles and directions to be applied ? The first point
to notice is that the whole theory of Church penitential
discipline implies a social view of sin. It is not merely a
personal matter between the soul and GOD. Our private
sins (so called), our lusts and selfishness . . . are wrongs

vi PREFACE

to the Church, the Body, as well as offences against GOD,
and impoverishments of our own souls. In injuring our
souls we rob and injure the Church. This is the great
principle, and it is the perception of this that is so
lamentably lacking in ordinary English Christianity. . . .

" How are we to restore to the ordinary conscience that
sense of obligation to the Church which is the moral
basis of Church discipline ?

"The early discipline of the Church was, we must
remember, very imperfect in result, but none the less
very valuable in its moral witness. . . . We must not
allow the profound moral ideal of the Prayer-book and
the New Testament to remain a dead letter — we are ' to
judge those within.' And it must never be forgotten
that the whole historical position of private confession
shows it to be a preparation or a substitute for the public
discipline. . . .

"The recollection of this vital principle is best secured
by private confession being kept, as our Church intends,
thoroughly voluntary ; and that not merely in the sense
in which all religious acts are worthless which do not
involve an act of will. In the latter sense Communion
is voluntary. Auricular confession is voluntary in the
further sense that the Church requires no one to make it
unless their own conscience urges them to. It is not the
only method accepted by the Church of recovery from
every grievous sin, but one method. It is our business to
see that all Churchmen know of its existence and meaning.

" It may be desirable that Bishops should forbid us to
begin to hear confessions, or confessions of persons of the
other sex, till we are thirty years old. Anyway, we should
train ourselves to be judicious confessors, with adequate
moral knowledge, whenever we are called upon to exercise

PREFACE vii

the ministry. The Latin Rules given as helps to hearing
confession in the Priest's Book of Private Devotion are
for the most part, I think, sensible. [A translation is
given in Chapter V.] But the requisite moral knowledge
is to be derived in the main from knowledge of men and
women and their temptations, and (especially) from a
close and constant study of the moral principles and
precepts of the Bible. Mr. Ottley's essay on Christian
Ethics in Lux Mundi may help us to study the subject.
It must always be remembered that Roman books of
moral theology are directed towards a system of obligatory
confession, which is in some respects different not only in
degree, but almost in kind, from that under which we live
and work. Good sense, good feeling, and clear Christian
principles are what we want to help souls.

" I cannot conclude without saying, as one who both
makes and hears confessions, that, living as we do, in a
self-excusing age, and surrounded as one is by too kind
friends, it is a discipline of enormous moral value. Like
every other good thing, it may be easily misused. It is
misused when it is allowed to minister to a love of being
directed from outside, instead of using one's own judgment
and depending on the personal guidance of the Holy
Spirit. But dbusus non tollit usum. Confession need not
mean direction, and direction may be over-much sought
without confession. Confession seems to me a practice
very much to be recommended to the returning penitent,
and to persons in crises of their lives, as often before
confirmation, or marriage, or ordination. We clergy
perhaps especially need such discipline, and in many cases
where people are over-much given to introspection and
scrupulousness, it may be a blessed instrument of moral
liberty."

viii PREFACE

I quote these words, not as claiming the approval
of the Bishop for this little book, which in fact he
has not read, but as showing the present attitude to
wards the ministry of absolution, which is I believe
shared by a large, and I hope growing, body of priests
in the Church of England. My only excuse for
writing on a subject of exceptional difficulty is that,
while I have been engaged in mission work since
1884, I have been in constant communication with
many of the men who are trying to work on the lines
which Bishop Gore has laid down. I owe much
more than I can express to my brethren in the
Community of the Resurrection ; but though they
have given me much generous help in the prepara
tion of the book, they should not be held responsible
for any failure on my part to express the convictions
which we hold in common.

Though this book is primarily intended for the
clergy, I hope there is nothing in it to offend the
conscience of lay readers, who will join in the prayer
that we may be efficient as " Ministers of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of GOD."

CYRIL BIOKERSTETH.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE

The need of casuistical theology — Bishop Jeremy Taylor
— Neglect of confession in the Anglican communion
— Revival of penitence — Testimony of Dr. Pusey —
The Priest in Absolution, translation of the Abbe
Gaume's manual — A casuistry committee — Roman
Catholic text-books not applicable to our conditions
— Bishop Gore's plea for a new casuistry — Lack of
suitable text-books — Bishop King's advice — The
writer's excuse for offering counsel to the younger
clergy — A caution from Dr. Pusey's sermon on the
Entire Absolution of the Penitent .... 1

II
CONFESSION AND LIBERTY

The Anglican position — The Ordinal based on our Lord's
commission — Given to the Body but exercised
through the ordained ministry— Dr. Pusey on the
points of agreement and difference between Roman
ists and Anglicans — His note on Tertullian — The
decrees of the Lateran Council, 1215, and of the
Council of Trent not binding on English Church —
Public discipline and private absolution — Archbishop
Temple's Charge in 1898 not mere compromise — His
testimony to value of confession — In loyalty to
Anglican position there is room for much fuller use
of confession — Sacramental confession not required

x CONTENTS

PAGE

for venial sins — Cardinal Manning's testimony to
blameless lives in English Church — Confession some
times used by those who would do better without
it — Generally neglected by those who need it most
— Bishop Wordsworth of Salisbury — S. Jerome to
Demetrias on the " second plank." .... 10

III

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS

The ideal of an orderly growth in grace — Faith and con
duct — The main business of the clergy to promote
positive holiness — The Beatitudes and the fruits of
the Spirit supply the ideal — But the fact of sin must
be faced — Eobert Browning and Archbishop Temple
on original sin — Biology and survival of animal char
acteristics — Venial and deadly sin — Functions of the
spiritual pastor — S. Chrysostom's comparison with
the natural shepherd — Individual intercourse —
House to house visitation does not fully meet the
case — The priest must be in church at stated times
to minister to souls one by one — Confession and
direction quite distinct ...... 22

IV
THE PASTORAL OFFICE

The clergy are responsible for neglect of confession — A
vague and ineffectual ministry — Courage required to
speak the truth, and boldly rebuke vice — Pressure
put upon the clergy to avoid giving offence — The
ultimate result of " moderation " is indifference or
contempt — The priest must be a penitent himself —
If without personal experience of deadly sin, which
is a large assumption, he may well use confession as
an exercise in humility and means of self-discipline

CONTENTS xi

PAGE

— The longing of the devout laity for a penitent and
converted priesthood — George Eliot's sketch of a
typical Anglican clergyman — But confession has been
sometimes associated with moral laxity — Pascal's
Provincial Letters — Typical English priests whose best
work was done in ministry to individual souls — Fit
ness to be attained by development of spiritual life,
and acquisition of technical knowledge — The small
results of so-called Quiet Days, and the value of real
Retreats — The question of licensed confessors — The
demand in 1873 — Regulation needed for young
priests, but the hearing of confessions not a special
function — Inseparable from the cure of souls — Juris
diction — Reserved cases — Some special treatment
needed for clergy guilty of very grave sins — And
for enforcing moral standard where public opinion is
lax 34

THE LATIN RULES

Rules from the Roman Rituale — An admirable summary
of points to be remembered — (I.) Why was the sacra
ment ordained ; with note — (II.) The priest must be
accessible — (III.) Confessions to be heard in church,
not in the vestry — Openness — Advantage of Roman
box or some equivalent — (IV.) An unknown peni
tent should be questioned as to his state, and whether
he is properly prepared — (V.) If ignorant of Christian
doctrine he should be taught — (VI.) The penitent
must be helped, and (VII.) questioned, but (VIII.)
great care is needed not to injure by excess or defect
in questioning — (IX.) Fatherly rebuke and counsel to
be given — Need of spiritual tact — (X.) The advice
about satisfaction arid penance needs qualification, for
there is a danger of forgetting the one only sacrifice,
oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole

xii CONTENTS

PAGE

world — (XI.) Appropriate penances suggested for
various sins, but care is needed lest the public nature
of the penance betray a secret sin— (XII.) On
granting and withholding absolution— Note that the
confessor must not absolve from public penalties
without authority— (XIII.) The treatment of habitual
sinners, and (XIV.) the sick— (XV.) The perpetual
obligation of the seal— The 113th Canon— The priest
may tell a lie if he cannot otherwise avoid violating
the seal— But he should exercise great care and
habitual recollection, and must give no colour to the
suspicion that the secrets of confession are endangered
in family life **

VI
THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION

Three occasions for its use in ordinary parochial ministry
— (I.) In preparing candidates for Confirmation —
The candidate is not properly prepared if he does
not understand the doctrine of repentance, and the
Bishop's prayer implies that he is forgiven— This
does not necessarily involve sacramental confession—
But that is generally good, even for the innocent—
Children's confessions may sometimes be heard with
out their parents' consent, but not regularly or often

g. Augustine on forgiveness of venial sin — All

should know about confession, and use it when they
fall into serious sin— A typical case— Why com
municants fall away— Danger of " compulsory " Com
munion—Absolution the removal of a barrier— Should
not generally be separated from Communion — Young
children unconfirmed should normally make confes
sion to their parents — Where candidates for Confir
mation do not make their confessions, it is generally
due to faulty methods of preparation— Instruction

CONTENTS xiii

PAQE

should be individual— Time may be found for this by
giving up much less important work — (II.) The visita
tion of the sick— A plea for the Prayer-book as it is
—Substitution of vague sentiment for prescribed
practice— The rubric requires the priest to urge con
fession— (III.) The priest is bound to recommend
confession from the pulpit when he gives notice of
Communion, especially before great festivals— But
where ordinary teaching fails, special efforts should be
made to recover lost ground 60

VII
PAROCHIAL MISSIONS

Church teaching obscured (I.) -by worldliness (II.) by in
trusion of an alien tradition — Catholic teaching let
slip, and worldliness encouraged by prominence of
establishment — Canon Hobhouse's Bampton Lectures
— Evangelical movement counteracted worldliness,
but ignored Sacraments — Oxford movement placed
things in true proportion, but there are large areas
practically untouched by it— The gradual evolution
of parochial missions — Fusion of evangelical zeal
with principles of Church order— Emotional missions
discredited, element of instruction now predominant,
and sacramental methods used by all — The scientific
method and orderly presentation of doctrine derived
from Ignatian method— If the missioner is not
" moderate and safe," sinners are converted — Many
will desire confession — The mission reinforces the
teaching which should have been given before
hand, and in the future the parish priest and his
people will understand what penitence means —
Quotation from Missioner's Handbook, by Father
Paul Bull 73

xiv CONTENTS

VIII
THE FORM OF CONFESSION

PAGE

The use of a form emphasises the fact that confession is
made to GOD— A truth distorted or forgotten when
the power of the priest is exaggerated, or his
ministerial character disregarded — Informal con
versations contrasted with the thoroughness of real
confession — The use of surplice and stole and religious
solemnity specially needed in case of women — Sacra
mental character safeguarded by form — Suggested
form— To GOD before the Company of Heaven— The
title of father accepted, not demanded— Expressions
of contrition should not be beyond the experience
of the penitent— Whether all sins must be confessed
— The penitent may relieve his conscience if he
please, but should not ask for absolution unless
willing to confess all grave sins of which he is
conscious — Certain questions which will generally
elicit all material facts— General confessions should
be very rarely repeated— Morbid introspection dis
couraged—Punishment often follows forgiveness-
Penance imposed by the priest merely symbolic, and
to be distinguished from acts of reparation and
amendment — Counsel not always needed — Priest
must not assume unasked the office of director —
Some long for the relief of confession without
understanding absolution 83

IX

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION

Difficulty of determining when absolution should be re
fused — More felt where confessions are frequent —
Danger of unreality— Priests saved from painful
cases which must arise where compulsion prevails
—Absolution cannot be given when the penitent is

CONTENTS xv

PAGE

unwilling to make restitution or amendment — One,
who is only troubled by the memory of a single sin,
often needs conversion — Neglect of public worship —
Disobedience to parents — Murder, adultery, misuse
of marriage — Instruction of young people concern
ing purity — Fasting and temperance — Restitution
of stolen goods — Dishonest practices in business —
Debts and slander — George Eliot on the purifying
effect of open confession — Delay of absolution to
deepen penitence — Severity and tenderness con
trasted 94

X

THE RULE OF LIFE

The confessional notlmerely the refuge of sinners, but the
school of saints — Dr. Pusey on its legitimate use
by good people — Making largest demand upon the
clergy — Who must be penitent and aiming high —
The value of a rule of life — (I.) Private prayer — Use
and abuse of forms — (II.) Meditation — Testimony
of a Buddhist priest — Buddhist and Christian ideals
— The confessor must be able to point out the
higher path, and gladly surrender his penitents to
other guidance when needed — (III.) Public worship
and the obligation of the Lord's Day — Frequency
of communion — (IV.) Fasting, its obligation and
value — The confessor needs experience and common
sense— (V.) Almsgiving a duty to be taught, but the
priest shall not direct in detail — The use of money
and social reform 105

XI

PUBLIC DISCIPLINE AND PRIVATE PENANCE

The importance of history— M. Batiffol on " Les Origines
de la Penitence "— Fulham Conference Report-
Primitive private confession preliminary to public

xvi CONTENTS

PAGE

acknowledgment — Practice of the Church illustrated
by Montanist, Novatianist, and Donatist contro
versies — Tertullian, De Pudicitia and De Pcenitentia
contrasted — Claim of Pope Callistus — The Decian
persecution — The case of the lapsed — S. Cyprian
contrasts discipline of the Church with irregularities
prevailing at Carthage — S. Augustine's reply to
Vincent — The Bishop the ordinary minister of peni
tence — Origin of penitentiary officers — Dr. Moberly's
summary — A doctrine of reserved cases . . .118

XII
NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS

If clergy are awakened further guidance is needed —
Central Society of Sacred Study — List of books on
Christian Ethics and Casuistry with notes and
addenda— General works : Dill, Bigg, &c.— Sermon
on the Mount— S. James— S. Paul's Epistles-
Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus — Bishop Gore — Charles
Robinson— Bishop Westcott— The Fathers, especially
S. Augustine, Confessions) and De Rudibus Catechizandis
— S. Gregory, De Cura Pastorali — Alfred the Great —
Ethics of Aristotle — S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa II.
II. — Method of Summa — Bishop Paget on "Accidie"
— Liguori, Gury, and Gaume caute legenda — Pascal's
Provincial Letters — H. C. Lea on Confession, Sacerdotal
Celibacy, &c. — Modern Roman books : Lehmkuhl,
Bucceroni, Schneider — English works : Jeremy
Taylor, Sanderson, Marshall, Skinner's Moral
Synopsis — American : Elmendorf and Bishop Webb —
General works: T. T. Carter, Bishop Churton,
Bishop Drury — Value of Fulham Conference Report
— The practical questions shelved — Plea for further
guidance from the Bishops — The writer's standpoint
— Arvisenet's Memoriale — A final quotation , .127

THE

MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

INTBODTJCTION

IN the Preface to Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Ductor
Dubitantium he remarks that there was in the
Reformed Churches a great scarcity of books on cases
of conscience.

"For any public provision of books of casuistical
theology we were almost wholly unprovided, and
like the children of Israel in the days of Saul and
Jonathan we were forced to go down to the forges
of the Philistines to sharpen every man his share and
his coulter, his axe and his mattock. We had swords
and spears of our own, enough for defence and more
than enough for disputation ; but in this more
necessary part of the conduct of consciences we did
receive our answers from abroad, till we found that
our old needs were sometimes very ill supplied, and
new necessities did every day arise."

A

2 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

These words were written in 1659, and it cannot
be said that much has been done since by Anglican
divines to roll away this reproach. Bishop Jeremy
Taylor's own work remains as a monument of solid
learning, but it does not seem to attract the modern
reader, or to supply the needs of the young priest
who looks for practical guidance in the exercise of
his ministry to individual souls. It is not surprising
that for nearly two hundred years after Jeremy
Taylor's time little or nothing was done to supply
a want which was scarcely felt. It remained the
case, as Jeremy Taylor says, " that the careless and
needless neglect of receiving private confesssions
hath been too great a cause of our not providing
materials apt for so pious and useful a ministra
tion."

But through the mercy of GOD there has been
during the past fifty years a real revival of penitence
amongst us; and there is a great, and growing,
number of faithful children of the Church in
England, who expect their clergy to be not merely
preachers, and organisers of public worship, but real
spiritual guides and fathers in Christ. In Dr.
Pusey's introduction to the Abbe Gaume's Manual
for Confessors, published in 1877, he shows how the
use of confession and the desire for absolution re
vived amongst us. It was not due to deliberate
teaching on the part of the clergy ; but when, under

INTRODUCTION 3

the influence of the Oxford Tracts, preachers began
to insist on the gravity of post-baptismal sin, " it
fell on people's hearts like a thunder-clap."

The practice of confession spread from conscience
to conscience, before there was any oral teaching as
to the remedy. Living men whose minds were
stirred taught the nature of the disease : the Prayer-
book which the Church of England put into the
hands of all her children in their own language
taught the remedy. " Without any other living
teaching, men (for the enlarged use of confession
began with men), men whose consciences were
awakened learned to lay down the burden of their
sins at our dear Lord's feet : and He by virtue of
His words, ' Whose soever sins ye remit, they are re
mitted unto them,' said to their inmost souls, ' Thy
sins be forgiven thee ; go in peace.' In those stirring
times, people saw the change wrought in the outward
life of their acquaintance, and asked, 'What has
changed you so ? ' The answer, ' I have been to
confession/ suggested the thought, 'Then it might
be good for me too.' "

Dr. Pusey's book, from which the above is quoted,
was published at a time when public opinion was
deeply stirred. An attempt had been made to aid
the clergy in their ministry by the private circula
tion of a manual called the Priest in Absolution.
Unfortunately, this book achieved an unenviable

4 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

and undeserved notoriety. It was certainly not the
kind of book which would have been written by
Mr. Keble, Dr. Pusey himself, or by such men as
George Howard Wilkinson, who was then beginning
his wonderful ministry at S. Peter's, Eaton Square,
and leading innumerable souls by his evangelical
preaching to sacramental confession. In the judg
ment of the present writer it contained many dis
putable statements and entered into unnecessary
details, appearing to encourage a wrong method
of dealing with souls ; but the clamour raised
against it was altogether unreasonable. To make
extracts from a medical journal and to proclaim
them upon the housetops might well be an out
rage on public decency, but the responsibility for
such an outrage should rest not with the original
writers, but with the unscrupulous people who spread
abroad what was meant for the private information
of responsible students.

Dr. Pusey's edition of the Abbe Gaume avoids the
subject which roused the opponents of the Priest in
Absolution to unmeasured fury. He omits alto
gether the questions on the Seventh Command
ment which the Abbe Gaume says should be used
under certain circumstances, in assisting an unin-
structed penitent to relieve his conscience. At the
time he was wise. It was important to show that
the Seventh Commandment is not the one to which

INTRODUCTION 5

the mind of priest or penitent chiefly needs to be
directed, and it is precisely there that great caution
is needed when, as Jeremy Taylor puts it, we are
driven to sharpen our weapons at the forges of the
Philistines.

On the other hand, a writer who desires to help
his brethren to make full proof of their ministry,
cannot avoid speaking of certain sins which are not
only shameful but common.

The present writer has acted as secretary to a
committee, which for several years past has endea
voured to answer questions of casuistry submitted to
it. In dealing with such questions we have generally
consulted the chief Roman Catholic text-books, but
we have realised, in nearly every case, that our
different circumstances rendered it necessary to form
an independent judgment. Believing as we do that
the Church in England has rightly returned to the
practice of the early Church in not insisting on com
pulsory confession, and that she rightly aims at
helping the penitent to keep his own conscience
rather than surrender it into the hands of his priest,
we have left open many questions which a more
rigorous system would have closed. We have kept
in mind an appeal made by the Bishop of Oxford
(Dr. Gore) many years ago, on behalf of what he
called a new form of casuistry. The old casuistry
was largely occupied in discovering the most lenient

6 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

terms on which a sinner could be restored to the
communion of the Church ; the new casuistry is
the attempt to discover, what is the higher line of
conduct suggested by the Christian ideal.

We have not allowed ourselves to forget that
the practice of confession has been described as
the attempt to obtain spiritual whitewash on the
cheapest possible terms. We know that it may, when
misused, degenerate into a substitute for genuine
repentance, but on the other hand we have abundant
evidence that the practice of confession, rightly used,
brings untold blessings to both priests and people.
It is much to be regretted that none of our official
Professors of Pastoral Theology seem disposed to
take in hand the task of providing the clergy who
are called to this ministry with the guidance that
they need. There are excellent hand-books for the
clergy on preaching, on parochial work, on the
management of schools and charitable relief, and
some of great value on the priest's inner life, but there
is scarcely any book which one can recommend as
a satisfactory and sufficient manual for a young
priest, when he finds himself drawing near to the
time when he will have the responsibility of hearing
confessions. It is said that a young priest asked
the late Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. King) what he could
read to fit himself for this ministry, and the Bishop,
whose experience as a guide of souls was almost

INTRODUCTION 7

unrivalled in the Anglican communion, replied^
"Read the Bible and good novels." The writer
cannot vouch for the accuracy of the story, but the
reply was eminently characteristic. The reading
of good novels tends to increase one's knowledge
of human nature, and to cultivate what may be
called the instincts of a gentleman, and a priest who
knows and loves his Bible is so far equipped for the
" ministry of the Word," but the words of the Bishop
should not be quoted to excuse the neglect of
technical knowledge. The individual cannot safely
ignore the accumulated experience of others who
have exercised this ministry, or disregard rules
which have the stamp of catholic authority.

Without possessing the ability or the leisure to
attempt a formal treatise on this great subject, I
venture to offer to the younger clergy some counsels
which one has derived in part from the study of
Anglican and Roman authorities, in part from the
experience gained humissions or in ordinary parochial
work, and above all from conference with others who
have largely used the ministry of absolution. To
those who are called to the office and work of priests
in the Church of GOD, and who desire to make full
proof of their ministry, I venture to commend some
words taken from Dr. Pusey's famous sermon on
the Entire Absolution of the Penitent.

" Blessed as this office is, and like our Blessed Lord's

8 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

own to relieve the burden of the clogged and choked
heart by receiving it, still from the experience of
those who have exercised that holy ministry, it must
be said that there is none so full of peril to those
who have not, by penitence and mortification, and
the continual sanctifying grace of GOD, or by some
sharp, penetrating, severing stroke, been deadened
to the things of time, and in the full aim and desire
of their heart are seeking to live to GOD. Sin is
an awful thing to handle. To hear of it continually
and not be defiled with it nor dulled to it ; to com
passionate a fellow-sinner and be austere with self ;
to hear of the defilement of every sense and keep
watch over his own, comes not from man himself,
but from the continual persevering and refreshing
grace of GOD, which keeps the whole man stayed
upon, looking to, and sealed by Him. It is, then,
a call the more to us to cleave fast to GOD, that
those committed to our charge may rightly place
trust in us ; to be jealously watchful over ourselves,
guard speech habitually, if we are to receive the
solemn secrets of men's inmost souls : train ourselves
in holy discipline, that we may be fitted to train
others, not be blind leaders of the blind ; strict with
ourselves, that we may know how to be tenderly
careful of others ; hate all motions of sin in ourselves
that we may teach others to hate it with a holy
shrinking ; be fervent ourselves that we may inspire

INTRODUCTION 9

others with a holy fervour ; love Him much who
we trust hath forgiven us, that we may, teach others,
being much forgiven, much to love ; and study deep
humility, and fervent prayer lest we fall into the
snare of the devil. For as the reward is great so
is the peril."

II

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY

IT cannot be necessary to occupy much time or
space here in demonstrating that the Church of
England, in common with the whole Catholic Church
East and West, teaches that our Lord Jesus Christ
left to His Church authority and power to carry on
His work in the absolution, or remission, of sins.

Whatever different shades there may be in the
private opinions of the Bishops of the Anglican
communion, every one of them in the execution of
his office says to those whom he ordains : —

" Receive the Holy Ghost for the office and work
of a priest in the Church of GOD, now committed
unto thee by the imposition of our hands. Whose
sins thou dost forgive they are forgiven ; and whose
sins thou dost retain they are retained."

Behind the words of the Prayer-book lie those of
the Gospel, and those who believe that our Lord
Jesus Christ rose from the dead, have no reason to
doubt that on the first Easter night He said to His

apostles, " Peace be unto you ; as My Father hath

10

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY 11

sent Me even so I send you," with the words already
quoted from the ordinal. It is of little consequence
whether the words were addressed to representatives
of the whole Church (S. Luke tells us that others
were with the eleven), or to the Apostles alone, as
S. John seems to suggest. It is not contended that
the great commission was given to the Apostles, as
isolated or independent of the Body, and if it were
given to the Body as a whole, it is a charge which
must be executed through the organs of the Body.
It is clear that the Church of England is committed
to the belief that the right to exercise in the
Church's name this power of absolution is entrusted
to the priesthood. Whether there are, or ought to
be, any restrictions on its use is a point for further
consideration, but prima facie, and in the absence
of any regulation to the contrary, every priest may
be called upon by those, whose souls are entrusted to
his care, to hear confessions and absolve both sick
and whole.

It is more to our present purpose to observe how
far the Church of England differs from the Church
of Rome, in the use she proposes to make of the
power which she claims to possess.

Dr. Pusey observes, " The point at issue between
the Romanists and ourselves as to confession relates
(as they themselves admit) not to its general advan
tage, or its necessity in particular cases, or its use

12 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

as a means of discipline, or to the desirableness of
public confession before the whole Church, or the
great difficulty of true penitence without it, or the
duty of individuals to comply with it if the Church
requires it ; but it is whether confession to man be
so essential to absolution that the benefits of absolu
tion cannot be had without it."

I am quoting from Note M in the translation of
Tertullian, de Penitentia, from the Oxford Library
of the Fathers, and there Dr. Pusey examines at
considerable length the patristic passages, which are
alleged in support of the famous decree of the
Lateran Council.

It was in 1215 that it was laid down " that every
faithful Christian of either sex after he has come to
years of discretion shall once in the year at least
confess his own sins to his own priest; and shall
strive with all his strength to fulfil the penance laid
upon him, reverently receiving the sacrament of the
Eucharist at least at Easter . . . otherwise in life
he shall be debarred from entering the Church and
in death he shall lack Christian burial."

Here is the law which binds the conscience of all
who are subject to the Roman obedience, and the
Council of Trent anathematises " any who say that
in the sacrament of penance it is not of Divine
right, necessary to the remission of sins, to confess
all and each mortal sin, whereof memory is had,

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY 13

after previous, due, and diligent thought, including
secret sins, and such as are against the two last
commands of the decalogue, and the circumstances
which change the character of the sin."

It is not difficult to show that this is a doctrine
which goes a very long way beyond the teaching of the
Fathers, who are quoted in its support. The theo
logical student will find in Dr. Pusey's elaborate note
the principal passages on which the controversy in
this respect between Rome and Canterbury turns,
and whoso has time and patience may read in the
learned, if prejudiced, pages of Dr. Lea a melan
choly history of the attempts to enforce compulsory
confession, and of the moral evils which were in his
opinion the natural and inevitable result.

The general conclusion that Dr. Pusey reaches
after an exhaustive study of the Fathers is " that the
early Church had no obligatory confession except
that of overt acts of sin with a view to public
penitence, and consequently that confession as now
practised in the Roman Church is not essential to
the validity of the general exercise of the power of
the keys ; still as a matter of discipline it belongs to
the Christian prudence of any Church to imitate it or
to lay it aside."

There is in many minds a confusion between the
public penance, which ought to be exercised in the
case of open and notorious sinners, and the private

14 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

ministry to individuals, who are drawn by their
own conscience alone to desire the benefit of abso
lution.

The Church of England is deeply committed to
the statement that it is much to be wished that the
ancient discipline should be restored. Year after
year we are reminded in the Commination Service
"that in the Primitive Church there was a godly
discipline that at the beginning of Lent such persons
as stood convicted of notorious sin were put to open
penance."

The lack of public discipline is indeed a grievous
scandal, and nothing is so likely to shake the alle
giance of her children to the Church of England as
the admission of persons to Holy Communion who
are known to be living in wilful sin, or in flagrant
disobedience to the Church's law. The general
disregard of obligation to the rules of the Church
is largely due to the fact that children have been
baptized without any attempt to secure that they
shall be brought up in the knowledge and obedience
of the Christian law. When the fences have been
thrown down at the threshold of the Christian life,
it is not surprising that our wisest teachers lament as
the gravest evil of the Church the prevalence of
membership without any sense of obligation.

Our present concern is with the administration of
private and voluntary penance, but in Chapter XL

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY 15

will be found some account of its relation to primi
tive discipline.

We cannot enforce confession, and I hope that we
have no wish to do so. The Church of England is well
within her rights in holding that the famous decree
of the Lateran Council is not binding on her children.
Recent controversies have done much to clear the
air, and the conference at Fulham in 1902 shows
that there is a large measure of agreement between
the best representatives of various schools of thought.
The volume on confession and absolution by Dr.
Drury, now Bishop of Ripon, published in the follow
ing year, shows how a learned and devout Evangelical
can appreciate the Catholic position, when it is
stated by such a careful and exact theologian as Dr.
Robert Moberly (see pages 106, 209).

We may take as the deliberate expression of the
mind of the Church of England, the following
passage from the Charge of Archbishop Temple in
1898 :—

" The Church of England, in this as in so many
other matters, makes for freedom.

" In the first place the Church insists that the
resort to confession shall be altogether and always
voluntary. No compulsion, direct or indirect, is ever
allowed. No priest has a right to require confession
as a condition of being presented for Confirmation,
or being admitted to Holy Communion. To claim

16 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

such a power is a usurpation to be resisted in every
way. If any one wishes to confess, the permission to
do so is acknowledged in the Prayer-book, and if
the need of it be strongly felt, not only acknowledged
but encouraged. Every man who comes to Holy
Communion is required to be at peace with his own
conscience, and if he be perplexed, and cannot find
the peace which is required, he is encouraged to
come to GOD'S minister for advice. Sometimes a
man who has wronged his neighbour does not see
how he is to set the wrong right. Sometimes
a man who has been fighting with a besetting
sin, and fighting unsuccessfully, wants advice in
the conduct of his battle. Sometimes a man
is troubled with an uneasy feeling that all is not
right with him, but he hardly knows in what
the worry consists. In such cases as these the
man is encouraged to come to GOD'S minister to be
told what to do, and if he needs it to be assured as
far as man can assure him that GOD forgives his
sin. This assurance is like the decision of an in
ferior Court — it may be overruled in the Court
above, but nevertheless it is of value as far as it
goes, and the man may trust it, and act upon it for
the present emergency. The same general rule
applies to the case of a man in serious sickness. He
is to be exhorted, if he feels his conscience troubled
with any weighty matter, to make special confession

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY 17

of his sins, and absolution is ordered to be pro
nounced if he shall heartily and humbly desire it.
In this case, as in the other, the confession is made
to depend on the conscience being troubled. The
initiative is with the man himself ; he is to confess
if he is troubled, and to seek absolution if he feels
the need of it. It is obvious that a confession
voluntarily made under pressure of perplexity and
trouble is a very different thing from confession as
a regular custom enforced with heavy sanctions."

Perhaps some of my readers hold, that the Arch
bishop's utterance was intended to allay the protes-
tant agitation, which was then at its height, and is
only another instance of the spirit of compromise,
which makes for weakness and inefficiency. I am
afraid it must be confessed that many are glad to
accept the Archbishop's defence of confession so far
as it goes, but make little or no effort to use the
ministry of absolution under the conditions which
he lays down; while in fact some of those who
are most diligent and effective in bringing souls to
repentance look elsewhere for guidance.

So far as the Archbishop himself was concerned
the reproach is unfounded. He was certainly not
wanting in the courage of his convictions ; he heard
many confessions himself, and was profoundly con
vinced of the value of that ministry. It is said that
he once surprised his candidates for ordination by

18 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

saying, "Before long you will have to hear con
fessions. I suppose you say you are not fit. That
is quite true, but you have got to get fit." It is
then in entire loyalty to the voluntary system of
the Church of England that we desire to become
better qualified for our ministry in this respect, and
we find that we cannot get the help we need from
Roman Catholic sources. The adaptation of foreign
manuals to the supposed needs of the English
Churchman is never a very satisfactory business. If
the editor is nervously anxious to eliminate all that
might give offence, he will probably omit much of
real value, and in any case his work will retain an
exotic flavour, which will not commend it to those
who believe that the English Church has a moral
standard and a genius of her own. Now, apart from
the precept of the Roman Church that confession
is binding on all Christians once a year at least, it
is admitted that confession is not required from those
who are free from deadly sin ; and we have good
reason to believe that many Christians are in that
happy state.

In the Life of Cardinal Manning1 we find a
striking and unexpected testimony to the blame
less and beautiful lives lived by many in the English
Church. He is blaming his co-religionists for their
failure to recognise "that the greater part of the
1 Purcell's Life, vol. ii. p. 780.

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY 19

English people are baptized and therefore are in the
supernatural state of grace."

He denies the propositions (1) that they have
lost their baptismal grace by mortal sin, and (2)
that therefore as they have not the sacrament of
Penance they have no means of rising again to the
grace of Baptism.

He says, "I have intimately known souls, living
by faith, hope, and charity and the sanctifying
grace with the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, in
humility, absolute purity of life and heart, in con
stant meditation on Holy Scripture, unceasing prayer,
complete self-denial, personal work amongst the
poor ; in a word, living lives of visible sanctification.
as undoubtedly the work of the Holy Ghost as I
have ever seen. I have seen this in whole families,
rich and poor, and in all conditions of life. Moreover,
I have received into the Church I do not know how
many souls in whom I could find no mortal sin."

One cannot refrain from asking in passing the
obvious question — Why not let well alone ? If the
Church of England can train such saints, why should
they be received into another communion? But
I only quote these words to establish the point that,
in the judgment of this experienced confessor, there
are many of the children of the Church of England,
who preserve their baptismal innocence and are free
from deadly sin.

20 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

The frank recognition of this fact will make us
quite content not to insist on sacramental confession
as being necessary for all; and we shall be much
more anxious to bring sinners to repentance than
to impose a burden on scrupulous consciences. It
is not a satisfactory state of things that, in some
parishes where confession is clearly taught, it is
used by the inner circle of devout souls, who might
make very good progress in holiness without it,
while it is neglected by the sort of people who
need it very badly, because, as it may be they
themselves know, without it they cannot return
to a state of grace, or approach at all to the Table
of the Lord. We should be in a much healthier
state, and one much more resembling the conditions
of the primitive Church, if the use of confession
were much more common amongst the new con
verts, or in the main body of sorely-tempted com
municants ; while the devout souls, presumably free
from deadly sin, made less demands upon the
attention of the clergy.

The late Bishop of Salisbury (Dr. Wordsworth),
in a letter on the ministry of penitence addressed
to the clergy of his diocese in 1898, has some ex
cellent remarks on the kind of people who need
confession; "I think that there are many persons
living with heavy sin upon their consciences, sin
perhaps that has found expression in single, dark

CONFESSION AND LIBERTY 21

acts, or sin that has become habitual, who would
be very much helped by confession. To such it
may make all the difference between interior light
and darkness. Such confession may need to be
repeated, perhaps at regular intervals, in order to
test the progress and perseverance of the penitent.
There are others of scrupulous conscience, who may
be made easy and at peace by it, who should,
nevertheless, in their own interest not be advised
to seek it often. There are many others to whom
I would say, as S. Jerome does to Demetrias (Ep.
130, 9), ' Nos ignoremus poenitentiam ne facile
peccemus. Ilia quasi secunda post naufragium
miseris tabula sit ; in virgine integra servetur navis.'
A Christian virgin should not need that second
plank of penitence ; it is meant for those who have
made shipwreck of life, that by it they may escape
safe to land."

Ill

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS

IT must be clear to any candid reader of the previous
chapters that the writer has no desire to press the
practice of confession beyond the limits laid down in
the Book of Common Prayer, as they are defined by
representative Anglican authorities such as Andrewes,
Hooker, and Pusey, or to come down to our day,
by the late Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop
Wordsworth of Salisbury.

Moreover, he does not assume that the graver sins
which chiefly need confession are so common, that
the priest should treat the souls committed to his
care as though they were in need of continual
restoration to a state of grace, from which they were
continually falling away.

Where infant baptism is practised under right
conditions, we hope that many persons make orderly
progress, going on from strength to strength. The
christened child, taught to pray in his earliest infancy,
growing up in the atmosphere of faith and love, and
responding to genuine Christian education, gradually

22

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS 23

develops a character which is marked by personal
devotion to our Lord and growing conformity to
His Will. From early years he learns that religious
faith and moral conduct are for the child of GOD
inseparable.

He knows that he cannot please GOD except by
doing His Will, and that His Will includes not only
the duties which are primarily religious, but the
duties also which he owes to his neighbours and
himself. The wide range of these duties is only
gradually perceived, and it is the main duty of the
Christian teacher to stimulate and encourage the
highest aspiration.

Nothing is so deadening to the spiritual life as
the notion that the chief business of the clergy is to
keep men free from gross sins, and to restore them
when they have fallen, in order to secure the ob
servance of a conventional standard. We are more
concerned, as Christians, with the Beatitudes than
with the Ten Commandments, and the fruits of the
Spirit make better heads for self-examination than
the seven deadly sins. The ordinary Christian, and
not merely the exceptional saint, is called to the
imitation of Christ, because He "suffered for us,
leaving us an example that we should follow in
His steps "(1 Pet. ii. 21).

And yet it is impossible to ignore the fact of sin.
Just in proportion to the earnestness with which

24 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

a man tries to respond to this call he is conscious
of failure, and he knows that failure is due not only
to temptation from without, but to an inherent
weakness in himself. Now, this inherent weakness
is what we call original sin, and the recognition of
its reality and power is the first condition of moral
and spiritual growth. Robert Browning saw one of
the strongest reasons for believing the truth of the
Christian faith in this : —

" 'Tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart
At the head of a lie — taught original sin,
The corruption of man's heart."

Gold Hair : a Story of Pornic.

We are not now concerned with the ultimate ex
planation of original sin. The narrative of the fall
in Genesis iii. may be regarded as an allegory, and
it does not answer our questions as to the ultimate
origin of evil, but it does correspond, in a very
striking way, with the teaching of biology, and with
facts of experience only too familiar.

Biologists tell us how the embryo child in its
mother's womb passes through stages which reflect
and reproduce the characteristics of its animal
ancestry; we know too well that we may find in
ourselves the ferocity of a tiger, the cold-blooded
selfishness of the fish, and the greediness, not to say
the uncleanness, of the pig. This corruption of the
heart, which we find universal, confirms the inspired

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS 25

allegory, which teaches us that something went wrong
at the beginning of human history. Man was scarcely
conscious of the spiritual life, which distinguished
him from the animal world to which he was akin,
before he exercised his new capacity for choice in
the wrong way, and chose the path of disobedience
and self-indulgence, bringing upon the race its
heritage of guilt and woe. However we explain it,
the fact remains, and to borrow the words of Arch
bishop Temple —

cc We mean to say that sin is not something which
has penetrated into our nature from the outside;
that it is not a garment thrown over our shoulders,
which may therefore be slipped off like a garment ;
that it is not the result of evil example, or of any
external influence whatever; that it is not learnt
like a lesson of evil, nor caught like an infectious
disease. It is part of our very selves. It has its
springs in the very sources of our being. It mingles
its poison with the very first beginnings of our life,
whether spiritual or natural. It cannot be cast off.
It cannot be torn up by the roots. It cannot be
treated by any medicine which discipline, or educa
tion, or example can supply. Penetrate into man as
deeply as you will, and you cannot reach its origin ;
drill him almost into a machine, and you will not
kill the life of this fatal power. Nay, it sometimes
seems as if by long drilling you might kill every-

26 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

thing else ; kill affection and stifle impulse, and dry
up the imagination, and convert the reason itself
into a mere engine for producing arguments at need ;
and yet you will not kill the inborn spirit .of evil ;
some day by some accident it is roused to unusual
violence, and bursts through all fetters, and reasserts
its independence as the last, and in this world im
perishable, token of humanity " (Rugby Sermons).

It is because sin is so deeply rooted in the human
heart that the pursuit of holiness and the deepening
of penitence are really inseparable. Even the saints
who through GOD'S mercy have been preserved from
overt sin like David's, find it natural to say, " Be
hold, I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin hath
my mother conceived me. But lo ! Thou requirest
truth in the inward parts, and shall make me to
understand wisdom secretly." As the ninth article
rightly insists, "This infection of nature doth re
main, yea in them that are regenerated."

There is, however, an immense difference between
the condition of those who preserve their baptismal
innocence, growing in grace and producing the fruits
of the Spirit, and those who by wilful and deliberate
sin fall away, so something must be said about the
distinction between venial and deadly sin.

The value of the distinction is often questioned.
Dr. Moberly said at the Fulham Conference, " This
distinction is true and valuable, if not pressed. The

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS 27

older distinction was with levia, gravia, and gravis-
sima, which are obviously indefinite words. But the
moment words of degree are pressed into technical
distinctions of kind, the definition which aimed at
truth has passed into untruth."

The distinction is clearly marked in the 1st Epistle
of St. John. In 1 St. John v. 16, we read, " There is
a sin unto death," and in the next verse, "All un
righteousness is sin; and there is a sin not unto
death." With this may be compared the earlier
statements: iii. 6, " Whoso abideth in Him sinneth
not," and i. 10, " If we say that we have no sin, we
make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." From
these words we* infer that St. John means that the
normal condition of a Christian abiding in Christ
is one of freedom from deadly sin, but not of free
dom from all sin ; and this distinction between sins
great and small is recognised by men in general,
though difficulties arise when an attempt is made
to introduce a rigid classification.

The gravity of sin depends not on the sin itself
so much as on the state of the person who commits
it, and it is very dangerous to suggest that any sin
is insignificant. The broad fact that certain sins
are deadly, in that they tend to cut off the soul
from GOD, can scarcely be denied ; against such we
are taught to pray in the Litany, where we ask to
be delivered from fornication and all other deadly

28 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

sin. There, a certain sin, not reckoned as a crime
to be punished by human law, is regarded as deadly
in itself and typical of others like it. Where souls
are awakened to the call of GOD, and to the supreme
obligation of holiness, there will be a real anxiety
to know whether they have transgressed the line
between what is merely venial and what carries
with it the appalling consequence of separation from
GOD. The troubled conscience can be best guided
not so much by technical rules, as by the experience
of a priest, penitent himself, who can enter into
anxieties which he himself has felt. He will know
how to make allowance for a soul struggling bravely
with temptations, which are partly the consequence
of past and forgiven sin; he will encourage the
weak in their effort after holiness ; he will warn the
self-satisfied against the danger of indifference to
little sins. But, above all, the true priest is not
content to absolve the penitents who fall short
of some conventional standard. He is concerned
with their progressive growth in holiness, "admon
ishing every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in
Christ."

The hearing of confessions and the ministry of
absolution is only one department of what S. Gregory
calls " Ars artium regimen animarum," but since
sin is the chronic disease affecting the whole human

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS 29

race, one cannot promote genuine growth in holiness
without the discovery of sin.

The business of the spiritual physician is to keep
in vigorous health the souls committed to his care,
but he cannot do it without some systematic study
of the manifold ramifications of the disease to which
all are liable, and the remedies appropriate to each.

In S. Chrysostom's treatise on the priesthood, a
striking parallel is drawn between the position of the
spiritual and the natural shepherd. The natural
shepherd, when he perceives that one of his sheep
is sick, can get hold of it and apply the proper
remedy. He can tie it up and diminish its food,
or apply cautery or the knife ; but with the spiritual
shepherd it is not so, for in his case the taking of the
remedy depends not on the will of the shepherd, but
on the will of his sheep (De Sacerdotio, ii. 3).

Pastoral work worthy of the name involves a
personal relation between the pastor and his flock;
and clergy misconceive the function of their office
if they regard themselves merely as lecturers on
religion, or organisers of public worship ; and even
these functions are sometimes neglected for much
less important forms of clerical activity. It is,
indeed, a lamentable fact that the energies of the
clergy are sometimes absorbed in work which, how
ever excellent in itself, is utterly remote from prayer
and the ministry of the Word.

30 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

The ministry of the Word includes not only
public preaching and the instruction of classes, but
the application of the Word of GOD to individual
souls. Without some recognised mode of pastoral
intercourse this is impossible. Some would say that
the system of house-to-house visitation, which is
probably pursued with greater diligence by the
clergy of the Church of England than by any other
religious teachers in the world, supplies all that is
needed. I should be very sorry to disparage that
important part of ministerial work, but it is absurd
to say that pastoral visitation covers the ground or
supplies all that is needed. Those who have the
deepest sense of pastoral responsibility are the first
to acknowledge how much of their time is wasted
in the kind of pastoral calls which degenerate into
merely social visits, or are merely the occasions of
distributing charitable relief. In the afternoon,
when the diligent curate habitually goes on his
rounds, he generally finds only the women at home,
and they, busy at the household duties, are not always
ready to receive the ministry of the Word or to
join in prayer. The curate who is thoughtful as well
as diligent visits in the evening, when the men are
at home, and that is better, but it does not neces
sarily secure that he gets the man to himself, and
can speak to him of personal religion. Sometimes
he has a better chance if he joins the ploughman at

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS 31

his work, and walks beside him while he ploughs his
lonely furrow. The priest with a real pastoral
instinct will find his opportunity as best he can, but
there is no hope of making pastoral intercourse a
reality for all who need it, till people learn that they
will find the parish priest in his church at stated
times, at regular and frequent intervals, prepared
to guide his people one by one along the way of
holiness whether they need confession or no.

The physician of the body does not do his work
by giving public lectures on health and disease, or
by suggesting that every sufferer may choose for
himself an appropriate pill or potion : even so the
spiritual physician can neither cure the disease of
sin, nor promote spiritual health and vigour, unless
his flock will come and tell him what is the matter, or
let him see how GOD is leading them on from strength
to strength.

It is here that we touch the important point of
spiritual direction, which is quite distinct from con
fession. There is a real danger of confusion. Many
a penitent who needs from time to time the benefit
of absolution needs no other director than the Holy
Spirit. The priest must not assume dominion over
souls. His business is not to relieve the penitent of
his own responsibility, or to regulate for him the
details of his conduct. He must rather strive to
bring him into such a relation to the Holy Spirit

32 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

that the enlightened conscience needs little or no
human guidance.

A lady of my acquaintance told me that she had
once asked a priest for advice, and he said that he
would be happy to give it, if she would place her
self under his direction. She naturally asked what
that involved, and he replied that she must be
prepared to surrender into his keeping her con
science, her reason, and her will ! I hope the lady
misunderstood him, for, of course such a monstrous
claim would not be made by any instructed priest
in the Anglican communion, but it cannot be too
clearly said, that direction should involve nothing
of the sort. Wise direction aims not at the enslaving
of the conscience or the stifling of the reason, but
at its liberty and enlightenment, and the best con
fessors are they whose penitents quickly learn to
be strong and free, and as little as possible dependent
on priestly help. And yet, at any rate in the earlier
stages of conversion, there is much for the priest to
do in suggesting a rule of life and methods of
prayer. Many Christians fail to advance in holiness,
not so much for lack of good intentions, as because
they have not learned to adjust means to ends, and
to map out for themselves a course of conduct. If
they "are willing to learn, an experienced confessor
can be of great service. With tact and sympathy
he can bring the experience he has gained to bear

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS 33

upon the circumstances of each individual, and
suggest, though he refuses to dictate, the plans which
are most likely to promote a real advance. Here is
the true casuistry, which does not concern itself so
much with sin, as with the discovery of the highest
attainable standard of holiness. Some suggestions
about the counsels that may be given will be found
in Chapter X.

IV

THE PASTOKAL OFFICE

GRANTING that confession in the presence of a priest
has a legitimate place in the system of the Church
of England, it is worth while to inquire why it is so
little used, especially by those who need it most.
The blame must surely rest mainly with the clergy.
Too often our ministry is so vague and ineffectual
that it does not reach the conscience and induce any
real anxiety about sin ; and when the conscience is
not really stirred, people will readily accept the
teaching of those who cry " Peace, peace, where there
is no peace." And the clergy who really desire to
be more thorough are exposed to a steady pressure
exerted in favour of so-called moderation. A priest
who is resolved " constantly to speak the truth and
boldly rebuke vice " must be prepared to " suffer for
the truth's sake." The practice of confession is
unpopular, and the very mention of it may disturb
the peace of a parish. The influential laity, whose
financial support of the Church is held to be of
immense importance, and sometimes even the Bishops,

THE PASTORAL OFFICE 35

bring a steady pressure to bear upon a priest. They
expect him to be complacent and popular, and, above
all, to avoid anything which is likely to give offence.

For a while these easygoing ways appear to serve
their purpose, but sooner or later the clergy who
acquiesce in the suppression of troublesome questions
find themselves without any influence for good.
They are regarded by their flocks with indifference, if
not with contempt : as a spiritual force they do not
count. They may gain, at any rate for a time, rewards
which the world bestows on those who serve it well,
but they know nothing of the deeper joys of the
ministry — the undying gratitude of souls saved from
sin and brought home to GOD, the consciousness of
fellowship with Christ, and with His saints.

I do not mean that we are bound to preach
confession in season and out of season; still less
that we are to transgress the limits of Anglican
'orthodoxy by insisting on its necessity in every
case. To do so would be wrong, foolish, and
useless. Wrong, because it is not according to the
mind of the Church which we serve, foolish and
useless because it will repel, rather than attract, the
people who need confession most. There is only
one way. The priest who would teach confession
must be a penitent himself. How can he expound
the system of the Church, in a way which will reach
the hearts of the people, if he has never felt the

36 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

shame and sorrow of confession, or the joy of ab
solution ?

But it may be urged that, even on the Roman
principle mentioned in Chapter II., confession is not
needed for those who are free from deadly sin. For
the sake of argument let us suppose that priests
have no personal experience of deadly sin. It is a
large assumption, and perhaps it ignores the fact that
what is merely venial in one person may be deadly
in another. The priest, who may have been preserved
throughout his life from any approach to the grosser
forms of intemperance or lust, can scarcely claim
that he has never been touched by pride or anger,
avarice and sloth, and the guilt of such sins must be
measured by the height of his calling and the width
of his responsibility.

But, if the sins of a priest are clearly venial, if he
never has reason to doubt the reality of his own
forgiveness, and the security of his own union with
GOD, he has to deal with some at least who are
fallen. His ministry is not confined to those who
are as innocent and happy as himself; he must
know what to say to those who are grieved and
wearied with the burden of their sin. He will surely
do so best if he has put himself into the position of
the man who cries, " GOD be merciful to me a
sinner."

In the absence of anything like deadly sin, one

THE PASTORAL OFFICE 37

may well use confession as a means of discipline, as
an exercise in humility, as a way of bringing oneself
up from time to time to the judgment of the
Church.

When the consciences of the faithful laity are
stirred they look round for some one to whom they
can unburden themselves ; and it is, indeed, a
grievous reproach to a diocese if it numbers amongst
its clergy few, if any, to whom the penitent feel
that they can turn for sympathy and help.

The unreadiness of the English clergy to minister
to troubled consciences is illustrated by a scene in one
of George Eliot's greatest novels. In Adam Bede the
Rev. Arthur Irwine is typical of the sort of English
clergyman who is thoroughly approved by those
who ask for moderation. He was quite free from
"enthusiasm," and equally opposed to Methodism
and Popery. When the young squire, Arthur
Donnithorne, was on the brink of deadly sin, he
rode over one morning to have breakfast with
the rector, for whom he entertained sincere respect
and affection. The rector was quite prepared to
moralise and give excellent advice on general
principles, and indeed suspected that the young
man had something on his mind, but serious con
fessions are not made at the breakfast table, and
to clergymen who are not prepared to say that they
have been entrusted with the power of absolution.

38 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

The opportunity was lost, and the young man,
hovering on the brink of deadly and irreparable sin,
found no restraint in the vague generalities of his
clerical friend. We know the sequel ; but the
tragedy of Hetty Sorrel is typical of innumerable
others, which are as common as they are, largely
because we lack a watchful and an effective ministry
of the Gospel.

How different might have been the story had this
amiable clergyman taught his pupil that there is an
effectual remedy for sin and a real preservative
against it. There was the young man ready to
open his heart ; with a little sympathy he might
have been induced to make a real confession. At
that stage he might so easily have been set free,
and his absolution would, of course, have depended
on the readiness to break off the foolish intercourse
which, unchecked, led to the ruin of the girl and the
subsequent murder of her child.

On the other hand, the practice of confession is
rendered repulsive, not to evil livers, but to serious
and conscientious people, because it has sometimes
been associated with moral laxity. One who reads
Pascal's Provincial Letters cannot be surprised that
the casuistry of the Jesuits, which he has exposed
with such merciless severity, provoked a terrible
reaction. Their desperate efforts to reconcile the
practice of religion with the manners and customs

THE PASTORAL OFFICE 39

of the world have not only compromised the reputa
tion of the " Society of Jesus," they have rendered
the legitimate and wholesome use of confession far
more difficult.

The foundation of a better system must be laid
in the conversion of the priesthood. It is only men
who are penitent themselves who can hope to hear
the confessions of their people, when confession is
established on a voluntary basis. There is abundant
evidence that men and women in the Church of
England are ready enough to use confession, when
they can find priests who are worthy of their con
fidence. Looking back over the past sixty years
one can think of a goodly company of men who were
trusted guides, not because they had conspicuous
talents for preaching or organisation, but because
they were known to be lovers of souls, who believed in
the exercise of their priesthood. Now that they have
passed away all men honour Dr. Pusey and Bishop
King, G. H. Wilkinson and George Body. Those
good men would all have said that the best work
they did for our Lord and His Church was not in
public but in the private ministry to individual souls.
If this is so, surely the time has come to recognise
more fully that our clergy should be ready and
better prepared for the exercise of their ministry;
and the preparation must be twofold: first there
must be the deepening of our own spiritual life, and

40 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

secondly there must be the acquisition of a certain
amount of technical knowledge.

The former is of much greater importance than
the latter, and it is far less easily acquired. There
is no infallible system for producing it, but to go
into retreat for three or four days of continuous
spiritual exercises, under the guidance of some ex
perienced confessor, often makes all the difference to
a priest's conception of the meaning and responsi
bility of his work.

So called quiet days are a very poor substitute
for a real retreat, and are chiefly valuable as the
opportunity of suggesting that something more is
needed. They are almost purely mischievous if they
leave us under the impression that our present
standards of spiritual life, and pastoral work, are
satisfactory.

It is in a long retreat, when one gives up three
or four days to the solemn consideration of funda
mental questions, and is led through the successive
stages of the purgative, the illuminative, and the
unitive way, that the priest is really humbled before
GOD, and goes back to take up his ministry in a more
serious fashion.

Retreats have been fairly common in the Church
of England for forty years, and they are valued
increasingly by a considerable number of devout
lay folk, but a very small proportion of the clergy

THE PASTORAL OFFICE 41

seem to use them, and the result is that many of
the laity, who really care for deeper spiritual things,
do not know where to turn for the comfort, and the
counsel, and the gift of absolution which they have
the right to expect.

It may be said that the ministry of absolution is
so difficult and delicate a matter that its exercise
should be confined to priests specially qualified and
licensed for the purpose. A largely-signed petition
was addressed to Convocation in 1873 desiring that
the Bishops should appoint a body of licensed con
fessors to whom this ministry might be confined,
and this demand seemed not unreasonable.

It was then rejected, for the great majority of the
Bishops would do nothing to encourage the practice
of confession, and public opinion in the Church was
not ripe for such a clear assertion of its legitimate
place.

It is still held by many thoughtful people that
the Bishops should regulate the practice, and it is
thought to be little short of a scandal, that a young
priest of twenty-four may be speedily immersed in
the practice of hearing the confessions of both sexes.
In answer to this it may be observed that such cases
are very rare. In those parishes where the use of
confession is general, the vicar may be trusted to
regulate the matter. He, and his experienced
assistants, will hear the confessions of men and

42 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

women and girls, while the young priest within two
or three years of his ordination, if he hears con
fessions at all, will only hear those of young men
and boys, whose confidence he can win more easily
than it could be won by an older man. Moreover,
where confession is voluntary and people are entirely
free to choose their own confessor, they are not
likely to go to those who are wholly unfit. There
is a simple rule which one generally gives to those
who ask where they should go — " Do not make your
confession to one who does not go to confession him
self." People soon find out, by his preaching and
general way of life, whether a priest is likely to be
of use to them or not. Moreover, the hearing of
confessions cannot be separated from the general
exercise of the ministry. A priest at his ordination
receives his commission, and when he is licensed by
the Bishop to a cure of souls, he is sent with his
Prayer-book in his hand to visit the sick and dying.
If he is a faithful minister of repentance the sick and
dying will sometimes desire to open their grief, even
when he is not obliged by the Prayer-book to urge
them to do so. Sometimes, no doubt, the young
priest may be able to procure for the sick and dying
an experienced confessor, but in many cases he must
trust in GOD and do his best, for, in the absence
of any restriction, his cure of souls impels him to
exercise the commission which he has received.

THE PASTORAL OFFICE 43

Again, if it were seriously proposed to provide in
each diocese a certain number of licensed confessors,
it is certain that the priests best fitted for this diffi
cult and delicate office would shrink very much
from assuming a peculiar position, which marked
them off from their brother clergy. The faithful
laity can be trusted to find out the best confessors
for themselves, and they would not be grateful for
the appointment of diocesan officials, whose qualifica
tions had not been gained in the school of experience.

On the other hand, much is to be said in favour
of reserved cases. In the absence of any regulation
the Anglican theory appears to be, that any licensed
priest may absolve any penitent after any sin, how
ever great.

The general commission to " remit and retain"
bestowed in ordination is, of course, limited by the
Bishop's licence. A priest without a Bishop's
licence has no jurisdiction. In the Roman Church
he would not think of celebrating the Eucharist or
hearing confessions without " faculties." With us
much greater laxity is common, but loyal and
conscientious priests do not feel justified in exercis
ing their ministry except in the sphere assigned to
them.

It is no doubt quite legitimate for a priest licensed
in one diocese to officiate in another for a limited
period, if the diocesan custom permits it, but he is

44 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

subject at any moment to the Bishop's inhibition,
and he cannot officiate in the church or parish of
another priest without his permission. It is very
desirable that the clergy who hear confessions should
be careful to observe this canonical obligation ; and
there is urgent need of some further regulation on
the part of the Bishops.

In comparing our theory and practice with that
of the Roman Catholic Church we notice, that in
that communion certain cases fall under the ordinary
jurisdiction of the parish priest, while others are
reserved to the Bishop, and others are reserved to
the Pope. Indeed, the modern Roman theory
appears to be that the Pope is the sole fountain
of justice and mercy, and Bishops and priests are
only his delegates. With us, of course, the Bishop
is the disciplinary authority for his own diocese —
bound, however, by the canons of his own province
and of the Church Universal; and it would seem
right for him to determine how much of his
authority he delegates to the parish priests, whom
he institutes, and to other priests whom he licenses.

Would it not be well if the Bishop were to avail
himself of the experience of the Roman Church and
reserve certain cases ? In the Roman obedience the
cases reserved differ in various dioceses, and in
missionary jurisdictions (such as England was in
their estimation till two or three years ago) the

THE PASTORAL OFFICE 45

largest powers are entrusted to the priests on the
mission.

The point of most practical importance in which
the present writer earnestly desires that the Bishops
would take action has to do with the confessions
of priests. Supposing a priest falls into sin so grave
that in the eyes of all Christian people, if the facts
were known, he would seem unfit to exercise his
ministry, until after some long period of penance, it
is bad that he should be able to quiet his conscience
and celebrate at once, by making his confession and
receiving absolution from a priest of his own selec
tion, who may lack the knowledge, the experience,
and the courage to deal with such a case. It would
be far better if the clergy generally were instructed,
that their faculties and licence to pronounce absolu
tion were subject to some limitation. Certain cases
might be reserved to the Bishop himself, or to a
priest appointed by him with special authority to
deal with cases of a very grave character. If the
principle of reserved cases were once established it
would give the opportunity to raise the moral
standard, and prevent the growing laxity, which is
encouraged by careless or ignorant confessors, who
may pass lightly over certain offences, which ought
to be condemned and severely punished. By way
of illustration take the case of a certain grave sin.
To its honour be it said, the Roman Catholic Church

46 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

consistently condemns certain practices in married
life, which are contrary to GOD'S law, and injurious
to the race, and the clergy refuse to absolve those
who will not promise amendment. Amongst our
selves some clergy take the stricter line, but if they
are not supported by the Bishops and their brethren,
even well-disposed people may come to think lightly
of the sin. The present writer is not suggesting that
inquiry must be made into secret sins. People are
quite free to avoid confession, and communicate, if
they can on their own responsibility; but if they
ask for absolution they should be told plainly that
they cannot be absolved, unless they promise to
abandon practices, which the Church refuses to
tolerate.

THE LATIN RULES

IN the Priest's (Book of Private Devotion, an ex
cellent manual widely used by the English clergy,
the editors have printed in the original rules taken
from the Roman Rituale which, they justly remark,
sum up in brief compass all that is most necessary
for confessors to know and observe.

I venture to offer a translation with some brief
notes.

In order that the holy Sacrament of Penance, instituted
by Christ our Lord for the restoration to the grace of
GOD of those who have fallen after baptism, may be duly
administered; in the first place let the confessor remember
that he plays the part alike of a judge and a physician,
and so in order that he may be able to judge rightly
between leprosy and leprosy, and like a skilled physician
prudently cure the diseases of the soul, and know how
to apply to each the appropriate remedies, let him strive
to acquire as much science and prudence as he can for

47

48 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

that purpose, both by constant prayer to God and "by the
study of approved authors.

(a) Remembering the stricter definition of a sacra
ment in the Catechism, some may hesitate to use
the term " Sacrament of Penance," but they cannot
question that the power of absolution was given by
our Lord Himself (S. John xx. 23), though it is not
tied to an outward and visible sign.

(6) We have, I fear, no list of approved authors,
but the confessor will find sufficient guidance in
some of the books mentioned in Chapter XII.

II

When called to hear a confession let him show
himself ready and easy to approach ; and before
he comes to hear it, if time allows, he will with pious
prayers implore Divine help to discharge his ministry
in a right and holy way.

It is not enough to be ready to hear confessions
if specially asked to do so. The faithful priest
should place himself at the disposal of his penitents,
by being in church at stated times to receive
them.

Ill

Let him hear confessions in churches, and not in
private houses without reasonable cause, and when that

THE LATIN RULES 49

occurs let him take care to hear them in a seemly and
open place.

We cannot be too careful to avoid scandal. Some
quiet corner in the open Church is greatly to be
preferred to the vestry. The practice of confession
has been greatly hindered by quite unnecessary
secrecy. There is much to be said in favour of
confessional boxes, and in the Roman Church they
secure for priest and penitent that the confession
cannot be interrupted or overheard, and there is
no possibility of scandal connected with their use.
A slight screen serves the same purpose, but some
times both priests and penitents prefer that their
proceedings should be entirely open, and there is
no reason for a hard-and-fast rule if the principle
stated above is duly observed.

IV

If the penitent is unknown to the priest, he should
inquire into his state; and how long ago he made
his last confession, and whether he fulfilled the penance
imposed upon him. Moreover , whether he had duly
and completely made his former confessions ; whether
he is well grounded in Christian doctrine; whether he
has diligently examined his conscience beforehand as
he ought ? But these and similar questions are better
asked at the end than in the beginning of the confession.

D

50 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

More often than not the priest will find it quite
unnecessary to ask these questions, but sometimes
they are essential if he is to deal thoroughly with
the case.

If he finds that the penitent is ignorant of the
elements of the Christian faith ; if time allows let him
briefly instruct him in the articles of faith, and other
things necessary to be known in order to be saved, and
let him reprove his ignorance and warn him to learn
them afterwards with greater diligence.

The direct personal dealing with the soul, which
confession involves, reveals the need of much more
thorough and systematic instruction than the
members of the English Church generally receive.
Only an experienced confessor knows how lament
able is the ignorance of fundamental truth even
amongst regular church-goers and communicants.

VI

Let him hear the penitent with patience and help
him as often as he needs it, but never interrupt unless
he need to understand something better. But let him
inspire confidence and offer kindly help, so that the
penitent may rightly and fully confess all his sins,
putting away the foolish shame, by which some are

THE LATIN RULES 51

hindered at the instigation of the devil and so dare
not confess their sins.

VII

If the penitent has not expressed the number and kind
of his sins and the circumstances which are necessary
to their explanation, the priest must prudently ask him.
And if considering the circumstances of the person he
has reasonable grounds for fearing or doubting, whether
his confession is complete, let him prudently examine
him about the things, which he suspects are being kept
back by the penitent, especially about the sins common
to his state, above all if he has not made any reference
to them at all.

VIII

But let Mm be careful not to hinder any one by
curious or useless questions, especially in the case of
young people of either sex, or ask them imprudently
about things of which they are ignorant, lest they be
scandalised and so learn to sin.

The three last rules are of very special importance.
It is impossible to exaggerate the harm which may be
done by the asking of wrong or foolish questions.
If the priest is a good man, protected in his ministry
by a vivid sense of the Divine Presence, he is not
likely to say what he ought not, but there is a very

52 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

real danger of injuring the penitent, by failing to help
him to be rid of the whole burden on his mind.

The penitent who is treated in a superficial and
perfunctory fashion by a timid or careless priest may
rejoice at the moment that he is spared the shame
of a painful disclosure, but the absolution does not
bring him solid, lasting peace, and he may learn to
think very lightly of sins half confessed and easily
absolved. It is in the delicate matter of knowing
how to probe the conscience, and to get at material
facts, that the young priest most needs help. He is
bound to probe deep enough to know, for example, in
a matter of dishonesty whether the case is one in
which restitution is needed, or in a matter of keeping
bad company whether the penitent is in danger of
relapse ; whether he is prepared to break off all occa
sions of sin ; and last, not least, whether the sin is
of so grave a character that absolution ought not to
be given unless the penitent is willing to submit to
the judgment of the Bishop, as suggested in the last

chapter.

IX

At length, when the confession has been heard, let
him with fatherly love administer rebukes and
counsels befitting the gravity and quality of the sins,
so far as he sees there is need of them, and he will
strive with efficacious words to lead the penitent to
sorrow and contrition, and induce him to amend

THE LATIN RULES 53

his life, place it on a better footing, and tell him the
remedies for sins.

Here again discretion is needed. The spiritual
tact, which can be won only by experience and
sympathy and the continual dependence on the
Holy Spirit, is needed. Some penitents need no
thing but the absolution, and well-meant counsels
and rebukes may only distract them ; but others are
reasonably disappointed if the confessor has no words
of encouragement or exhortation. Generally these
should be very short and pointed; sometimes the
confessor must be ready to spend an immense
amount of time and trouble in helping the penitent to
acquire that real sorrow of heart, and firm purpose of
amendment, which are really essential to his pardon.

Finally, let him impose some ivholesome and fitting
satisfaction, such as the spirit of prudence suggests,
taking account of the state, condition, sex, age, and
even the disposition of the penitents.

Let him see that he does not impose on grave sins
the most trifling penances, lest, if haply he connive
at them, he is made partaker of other mens sins.
Let him keep before his eyes the point that the satis
faction should not be merely with a view to guard
the new life and heal the infirmity, but for the punish-
ment of past sins.

54 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

Great care must betaken lest the " satisfaction"
here mentioned should be confounded with the " full,
perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satis
faction " offered by our Lord Himself.

It would be a terrible abuse of the ministry of
absolution if any penitent were led to suppose that
he could offer satisfaction for his sins in that sense,
but the desire to suffer something for the past, as
well as to guard against sin in the future, is an
accompaniment of genuine penitence, of which the
confessor must take account.

XI

Let him take care as far as possible to impose
penances, which counteract the sins; as on the
covetous almsgiving, on the lustful fastings and
other mortifications of the flesh, on the proud the
duties of humility, on the slothful devotional exer
cises. In short, let him prescribe on each, those by
which he hopes they may be most effectually restrained
from sin ; especially the daily exercise of prayer,
particularly mental prayer, and sacred reading,
and the worthy reception of the sacraments. But
for secret sins, however grave, he must never impose
an outward penance.

The danger of betraying the nature of the sin by
inflicting an appropriate penance is obvious, and

THE LATIN RULES 55

every careful priest will guard against it, but on the
other hand there are cases when the confessor must
urge the penitent to prove his sincerity by acknow
ledging his sin to those who have a right to know it.
It is sometimes the duty of a faithless husband or
wife to acknowledge his or her guilt to the injured
partner ; a priest who has rendered himself unfit for
his ministry must sometimes be urged to place him
self in the hands of his Bishop ; a criminal may be
obliged to give himself up to justice, if so only can he
clear the character of an innocent man.

In some of these cases the penance may be a con
dition of absolution, and the priest does not violate
the seal if the penitent is willing that his sins should
be thus made known.

XII

But let the priest observe diligently, when and to
whom absolution should be granted or denied, and
when it should be postponed ; so that he may grant
it in accordance with the rule to those who are duly
disposed, and deny it to those who are not. Amongst
the latter he must reckon those who give no signs
of sorrow, who are unwilling to lay aside hatred
and enmity, or to restore if they can other mens
property, or to forsake the immediate occasion of sin,
or in any other way abandon sin, or amend their

56 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

life; or who have given public scandal, unless they
make a public satisfaction and remove it.

The caution about public scandal is very neces
sary. Supposing a parish priest has duly warned
a person not to approach the sacraments, especially
if he is fortified by the authority of the Bishop,
another priest, who hears the penitent's confession,
has no right to remove the disciplinary bar without
reference to the authority by whom it has been im
posed.

XIII

Amongst those whose dispositions are doubtful
habitual sinners must commonly be counted; and
as a rule absolution should not be bestowed upon
them apart from a case of necessity and without
some marked improvement; especially if they have
more than once broken faith previously given.

XIV

Let the priest remember not to impose upon the
sick a weighty and laborious penance, but point out
one, which they can accomplish in due time if they get
well. In the meanwhile, hawing regard to the gravity
of the disease, when some prayer and some little act
of satisfaction has been imposed and accepted, let
them be absolved, as need be.

THE LATIN RULES 57

XV

Moreover, besides the kindness, knowledge, and
prudence required in confession, it is necessary also
that he preserve the seal of secret confession inviolate,
under exact and perpetual silence ; so that he never
says or does anything which either directly or in
directly tends to reveal any sin or defect known
through confession alone. But neither let him pre
sume to make use of any knowledge acquired in
confession, to the hurt or danger of the penitent;
neither let him speak even in a general way of sins
heard in confession unless necessity demands it;
and then discreetly and with great prudence, so that
no suspicion, however slight, may arise about par
ticular persons ; nor let him even speak of them in
the presence of laymen, lest they be offended.

The doctrine of the seal is of great importance.
It is clearly taught in the 113th Canon (1603),
which deals with the duty of presenting notorious
evil livers : —

" Provided always, that if any man confess his
secret and hidden sins to the minister, for the un
burdening of his conscience, and to receive spiritual
consolation and ease of mind from him ; we do not
in any way bind the said minister by this our
Constitution, but do straitly charge and admonish
him, that he do not at any time reveal and make

58 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

known to any person whatsoever any crime or
offence so committed to his trust and secrecy, (except
they be such crimes as by the laws of this realm his
own life may be called into question for concealing
the same), under pain of irregularity." l

The observance of this rule requires constant
watchfulness and a habit of reticence and discretion,
which can only be attained by those who aim at a
life of recollection and self-discipline. Where con
fession is voluntary, people will naturally abstain
from it unless they are convinced that the priest to
whom they resort would suffer anything rather than
betray their confidence. It should be clearly re
cognised by clergy and laity alike that a priest is
justified in denying, even on oath, that he knows
anything against the character of a person, if his
knowledge is derived only from the penitent's own
confession.

This is an extreme step, which no conscientious
priest would take without grave necessity, and it

1 A valuable letter on the Privilege of Religious Confessions in
English Courts of Justice, was published by Edward Badeley,
barrister-at-law, in 1865 (Butterworth, London), in which he
shows that the sanctity of the seal is and must be respected
in the Law-courts. His conclusion is, " ' Summa ratio est quae
pro religione facit,' is an old maxim of English law, and no
person, I am satisfied, who knows anything of the subject, or
considers it seriously, can reasonably doubt that the cause of
religion is deeply interested in maintaining the sacred inviolability
of confession."

THE LATIN RULES 59

is almost always possible to avoid placing one's self
in a position from which there is no other way of
escape.

A necessary corollary from this is that a priest
should generally refuse to give letters testimonial to
persons whose confessions he hears. In nine cases
out of ten, no doubt, he could do so without difficulty ;
in the tenth case he must either refuse, which in an
isolated case would arouse suspicion, or else he must
suppress the fact damaging to the penitent that he
knows, and yet must not tell.

The Roman Catholic manuals give many stories to
illustrate the danger of an inexperienced confessor
breaking the seal, by careless reference to things
which he has heard in confession.

Perhaps it is only right to add that there is a
widespread feeling that married priests are less trust
worthy as confessors than celibates. The present
writer has no reason to suppose that this is the case,
but it is obvious that special care is needed to give
no cause for the suspicion that the secrets of the
confessional are endangered by family life and social
intercourse.

VI

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION

THERE are three occasions in the ordinary ministry
of the parish priest, when he is bound, in loyalty to
the Book of Common Prayer, to give his people the
opportunity of confession, and even in some cases
to urge it on them : when he prepares candidates
for Confirmation, when he visits the sick and dying,
and when he gives formal notice of Holy Communion
— as, for instance, before a great festival.

(i.) As regards Confirmation, it is clearly the duty
of the priest to see that his candidates are duly
instructed in all that concerns the life of penitence
and faith; and moreover, the Bishop's prayer for
the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost implies that
the candidates have received the gift of regeneration
by water and the Holy Ghost, and the forgiveness of
all their sins.

I do not desire to insist that the candidate must
have received a special sacramental absolution just
before his Confirmation, but at least he is supposed
to be in a state of grace, enjoying the blessings of
pardon and peace.

60

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION 61

It is difficult to see how any candidate can be
properly prepared until he has been taught to
examine his conscience, and make a real confession
of his sins to GOD. Sometimes the private con
fession of sin to GOD will suffice, but in many cases
confession to GOD in the presence of a priest will
add seriousness to the repentance, and secure that
real assurance of forgiveness which would otherwise
be lacking. Moreover, in the case of young people
who have lived sheltered lives, and are presumably
free from any serious sin, though they do not need
to use it at the moment, to learn what confession
means will be of immense value to them in the
future, when more urgent occasion for its use will
probably arise.

Here the question may be raised whether children
and young persons should be encouraged or per
mitted to make their confession without their parents'
consent. Many would say " Certainly not," and it is
clearly right that the practice should not become
habitual without the knowledge of the parents, but
it would not be safe to say that in no case should a
priest hear the confession of a child until the parents'
permission has been given. Such a rule might
deprive the child of his best chance of escape from
terrible sin. It often happens that a young girl is in
serious trouble. She opens her grief in confession,
and a wise priest tells her that it is her duty to let

62 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

her mother know what is the matter, and get the
advice and protection that she needs. In such cases
the mother is often very grateful to the priest,
though perhaps, if she had been asked beforehand
whether she wished her child to make a confession,
she would have said " No " ; because she had no idea
what it really meant, or how greatly her child
needed it.

On the other hand, there is a serious danger of
encouraging young people to make their confession
as a matter of course, and because others are doing
so. Where the practice becomes quite common, we
should take pains to insist that confession must be
entirely voluntary, and that the child fully realises
the sinfulness of making an unreal or untrue con
fession.

Again, it is not generally wise to encourage children
and young people to make their confessions at
regular or frequent intervals, and certainly not before
each Communion. Such a method may have ap
parent advantages for the time. The priest is
encouraged by seeing his catechumens come quite
regularly, but in the long run the results are disap
pointing. Where the young communicants are
entirely dependent on a particular priest, there may
be no spontaneous spiritual life, and no independent
growth in grace. If they are removed from the
particular influence, they are in danger of not taking

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION 63

pains to prepare themselves, and so are likely to
drift away from Holy Communion altogether. It is
surely better that they should be taught to examine
their own consciences, and encouraged to come to
Holy Communion with growing frequency, as they
desire it, provided they are free from deadly sin.
That is the teaching of S. Augustine, to which
he refers again and again. In the " Sermon to Cate
chumens " he says : —

" When you have been baptized, hold fast to a
good life in the commandments of GOD, that you
may preserve your baptism to the end. I do not
say that you can live here without sin, but those
are venial sins, without which this life cannot be.
Baptism is found to be the remedy for all sin ; for
little sins, which we cannot be without, the remedy
is prayer. In Baptism we are washed once for all,
day by day we are washed in prayer. But never
commit those sins for which it is necessary that you
should be cut off from the body of Christ ; far be
that from you. Those whom you see doing penance
have committed crimes, adulteries, or some out
rageous deeds ; hence they are doing penance. For
if their sins had been slight, daily prayer would have
sufficed to blot them out." 1

S. Augustine, of course, is speaking here of doing

1 The " Sermo ad Catechumenos " was probably preached A.D. 400,
and is given in Heurtley's De Fide et Synibolo.

64 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

public penance, but that makes no difference to the
point that venial sins are remitted in answer to
prayer alone. Elsewhere he says that the recitation
of the " Our Father" is sufficient.

We may fully admit that good people, living strict
and holy lives, may use the sacrament of penance,
if they desire to do so, as a means of discipline ; but
that is a very different matter from insisting on, or
even encouraging, its very frequent use by young
people.

On the other hand, while one would discourage
the frequent and regular confessions of children,
they cannot be too clearly taught that it is the
natural and appropriate remedy for the serious sins,
into which even quite young boys and girls may
easily fall.

It is indeed a lamentable fact that, under the
ordinary methods which prevail in the Church of
England, a very large proportion of our young com
municants drift away. Here is a typical case. A
young man is confirmed and makes his first Com
munion, and perhaps goes on steadily and well for
months, or even years. Then he falls into a serious
sin, which his conscience tells him is quite incon
sistent with the life of a communicant. He stays
away from Communion. Too often his absence is
unnoticed, and nothing is said to encourage him to
return ; but the incompetent or careless priest may

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION 65

do worse than ignore his absence. Sometimes, with
out taking into account that the young man
probably has only too good a reason for refraining
from Communion, the priest merely urges him to
return, for he forgets that practical compulsion to
Communion is far more dangerous than compulsion
to confession. If the young man is honest and
sincere, he is shocked at the shallowness of a priest
who apparently only desires to keep up the number
of his communicants ; if he is weak or insincere, he
returns to Communion without any real repentance,
and to the permanent injury of his conscience.

How different the effect would be if the priest,
while expressing his real sorrow for the young man's
absence, invited him to come and prepare by a good
confession. That would help him to regain the
ground which he had lost, and enable him to realise
at once the seriousness of sin and the reality of
pardon. It is indeed sad that for lack of such an
obvious remedy many young people should drift away,
after a single false step, into the vast army of the
self-excommunicated. But the young man may
have abstained from Holy Communion, not because
he has really fallen into deadly sin ; it may be only
a scruple that keeps him back, which will be readily
removed if he comes to open his grief, and finds a
sympathetic and discerning priest.

Another question arises with reference to the

66 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

confessions of young people. The present writer
advises that candidates should normally be en
couraged to make a sacramental confession on the
eve of Confirmation, provided that there is no sort of
compulsion, and that everything is done to produce
real contrition, because the experience of a first
confession will make it easy to return if afterwards
they fall away ; but confession should not normally
be separated by any long interval from Holy Com
munion. Strictly speaking, absolution is not so
much a separate sacrament, conferring a special
grace of its own, as it is the removal of the barrier
between the soul and GOD, and the readmission to
the full privilege of Communion.

If this is so, there can be no reason for granting
absolution and yet withholding Communion. It may
be, of course, that Communion is rightly delayed,
because a further time is needed to test the reality
of the penitence, or to avoid scandal. For instance,
it may be a wise rule in a penitentiary not to allow
a penitent to receive her Communion until she has
been an inmate for twelve months ; but where that
rule exists, she ought not to receive absolution until
she is ready for Communion. Meanwhile, she may
be assured that the withholding of absolution for a
time does not mean that GOD has not forgiven her.
She is kept waiting, not for Divine forgiveness, but
for the sacramental seal of forgiveness, which admits
her to the Eucharistic Feast.

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION 67

So as regards young children not yet ready to be
confirmed. The ideal person to hear their confes
sions is the father or the mother. The priest who
wins their confidence may stand in loco parentis,
and a child may make a very real and true con
fession, but he should not be taught to expect or
desire absolution until the time has come for Confir
mation and Communion. The wise parent will, in
some serious cases, encourage the child to go to
GOD'S Minister for an informal, or even a formal,
confession.

Many priests who agree with the writer that it is
desirable that their Confirmation candidates should
be led to make their confessions, if it can be done
without any sort of compulsion, complain that in
fact very few of them are willing to accept the
invitation. One has often heard priests say, "I
always have a private interview with each candidate,
and offer to receive his confession, but I get little
or no response."

I venture to suggest that this comes from a faulty
method of preparation. So long as the candidates
are instructed in classes, and the priest never comes
to close quarters with the candidate till the final
interview, he should not be surprised if the candidate
is much too shy to think of confession. The in
structions may have been excellent in themselves,
and yet the candidates have not taken them in.
There is many a slip betwixt cup and lip, and many

68 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

a true word from the lips of a teacher never reaches
the ear, much less the heart, of his hearers.

The merely intellectual results are far more satis
factory when the lessons are imparted to individual
candidates one by one, and the priest who has taught
his candidate, not once or twice, but ten or twelve
times in a private interview, has probably broken
down the barrier of shyness. The earlier interviews
have been largely occupied in hearing repetition of
the Catechism or other doctrinal lessons, and in
looking over written work ; and then, when the time
comes to stir the conscience, and give practical help
about private prayer and private penitence, the
candidate is thankful to tell out his troubles and
his sins.

No doubt this method takes time, but there is
no time better spent, and if only the clergy would
abandon the management of clubs and nine-tenths
of the trivialities which are dignified with the name
of parochial work, they would find time enough for
the highest and most fruitful part of their ministry.
With a careful management of his time — if he is
willing, for instance, to give up five or six consecu
tive hours on Saturday afternoon and evening l — the
parish priest may make his preparation of candidates
for Confirmation of infinitely greater value.

1 Such was the practice of the late Canon Brooke of S. John's,

Kennington.

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION 69

(ii.) To adopt the individual method of preparing
for Confirmation may seem to some an innovation,
but there is certainly nothing new in the suggestion
that the visitation of the sick and dying is the special
opportunity for putting before individuals the duty
and privilege of private confession.

It has been suggested that the Order for the Visita
tion of the Sick needs revision. We need some
provision for the due administration of the ancient
and scriptural sacrament of Holy Unction, considered
not as a preparation for death, but as the appropriate
accompaniment of special prayer for bodily health.
We need, no doubt, additional prayers for the recovery
of health, as well as for resignation and the right
use of sickness ; but the revision of the Prayer-book
is of much less importance than the thorough use
of the Prayer-book as it is. How very different the
state of religion in England would be if the clergy
really carried out the intentions of the Church. The
solemn Office of the Visitation of the Sick has often
been abandoned for a method, which satisfies a vague
religious sentiment, while it drugs the conscience and
leaves the soul to face the Day of Judgment, " un-
houseled, disappointed, unanealed."

The following rubric demands nothing less than
a real probing of the conscience : —

Then shall the Minister examine whether he repent
him truly of his sins, and be in charity with all the

70 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

world ; exhorting him to forgive from the bottom of
his heart all persons that have offended him, and if
he hath offended any other, to asJc their forgiveness, and
when he hath done injury or wrong to any man, that
he makes amends to the utmost of his power. . . .

Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special
confession of his sins, if he feel his conscience troubled
with any weighty matter. After which confession the
priest shall absolve him (if he humbly and heartily
desire it) after this sort.

Then follows the prescribed form of absolution,
which is applicable to those who are sick both in
body and soul, and to those who, though in sound
bodily health, are conscious of the sickness of the
soul. No wonder that the work of the Church is
shallow and ineffectual, if a large proportion of the
clergy must admit that they have never moved
any one, sick or whole, to make a special confession
of his sin, and have never used the words of abso
lution.

(iii.) But we can hardly expect that the sick will
" humbly and heartily desire " the absolution, if it
has not been put before them as part of the ordinary
ministry of the Church.

There may be good reason for curtailing, or even
omitting altogether on ordinary occasions, the
long exhortation which the minister is ordered to
use on every Sunday when he gives warning for

THE ORDINARY USE OF CONFESSION 71

the celebration of the Holy Communion, but it is
difficult to conceive any adequate excuse for
neglecting it before the great festivals. Three
times a year at least the priest should remind his
flock of the blessings of Communion, of the great
peril of unworthily receiving, and of the means of
preparing for it. While he is bound to charge
intending communicants with the duty of " searching
their own consciences," and while he must acknow
ledge that in some cases nothing more is needed,
yet the invitation to confession must be given.

Because it is requisite, that no man should come to
the Holy Communion, but with a full trust in GOD'S
mercy, and with a qidet conscience; therefore, if there
be any of you by this means cannot quiet his own con
science herein, but requireth further comfort or counsel,
let him come to me, or to some other discreet and learned
Minister of GOD'S Word, and open his grief; that by
the ministry of GOD'S holy Word he may receive the
benefit of absolution, together with ghostly counsel and
advice, to the quieting of his conscience, and avoiding of
all scruple and doubtfulness.

Enough has been said to show that in the ordinary
ministration of the parish priest, in the instruction
of candidates for Confirmation, in the visitation of
the sick, and in the public notice of Holy Com
munion, there are abundant opportunities of incul
cating the use of confession, and where confession is

72 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

unknown, we can only conclude that the ordinary
ministry of the parish priest has been wanting in
courage, or in loyalty to the system of the Church.

To recover ground that has been lost, and to
recall the minds of priests and people to the ideals
of the Church, something more is needed, and in
the following chapter some account will be given of
the way in which a special parochial mission may
serve to introduce a deeper penitence, and a fuller
realisation of the value of confession.

VII

PAROCHIAL MISSIONS

IN the previous chapter I have tried to show how
the ordinary ministry of the parish priest must
include the teaching and practice of confession, if
he makes a serious attempt to carry out the
system of the Church; but when the teaching of
the Church has been obscured, partly by mere
neglect, and partly by the intrusion of an alien
tradition, something more than ordinary parochial
work is needed to recover what has been lost.

The Church in England is still affected very
largely by two influences, which are injurious to her
true position as an integral part of the Catholic
Church, if indeed she claims to hold primitive and
apostolic doctrine, and to protest only against what
is false.

Since the Reformation, the connection between
Church and State, with its roots in the distant
past, has generally fostered the growth of worldli-
ness, and a type of semi-religious life which shrinks
from discipline and the doctrine of the Cross. The

73

74 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

attempt to identify the Church and the nation has
led to the degradation of the two great sacraments,
and has undermined belief in the authority of the
priesthood and the reality of sacramental grace.

These consequences of " Establishment " have
been lately exposed with just severity in the
Bampton Lectures of Canon Hobhouse.1

After the degradation of the Church and its work
in the Hanoverian period, and until the rise of the
Oxford Tractarians, the saving salt, which preserved
the Church from the total loss of spiritual character,
was chiefly supplied by the Evangelical Movement.
In their loyalty to Jesus Christ, in their zeal for
personal holiness, in their protest against worldliness
and sin, the Evangelical leaders largely counteracted
the secularity which would otherwise have paralysed
the Church, but their religious system was in some
respects an alien tradition, which generally ignored,
and sometimes deliberately contradicted, the sacra
mental system.

While they rightly insisted on the need of conver
sion, and emphasised the personal relation between
the soul and the Saviour, the Evangelical leaders
made little or nothing of the Church, and regarded
Baptism and the Holy Eucharist as by no means
essential.

Seventy years ago the Oxford leaders made their

1 The Church and the World in Idea and History.

PAROCHIAL MISSIONS 75

protest, and in spite of ceaseless opposition there has
been a marvellous recovery of the true idea of the
Church and of the sacramental life; but there are
still vast areas in which the Erastian spirit, or the
Evangelical tradition, or a curious mixture of the
two, hold the field.

If he is to build up the lives of his flock on the
lines of the Prayer-book, the parish priest feels the
need of some strong spiritual reinforcement. Under
favourable conditions this may be supplied by a
parochial mission, and in this chapter an attempt
must be made to show how a mission often enables
priest and people to start fresh on the sounder lines
of genuine Churchmanship.

This is not the place to enlarge on the history of
parochial missions as they have been known in
England during the past fifty years. They have
been largely used by two out of the three schools
of thought which exist in the Church of England
to-day. Broad Churchmen are too academic in their
tastes, and too hazy in their beliefs to claim much
share in parochial missions ; if they have taken any
part, it has not been on lines of their own, but, in a
temporary and rather unreal alliance with one of the
other schools of thought. To Evangelicals the idea
of parochial missions has been congenial from the
first, and they have thrown themselves into the work
with energy and enthusiasm. The older generation

76 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

of Tractarians held aloof, shrinking from methods
which seemed so unlike the sober ways associated
with the best Anglican traditions, as they were ex
hibited by John Keble in the poetry of the Christian
Year and in his own life.

The suspicion that missions were incompatible
with Church order has been gradually laid aside.
When men like Father Benson and Father O'Neil of
Cowley threw themselves heartily into the great
London Mission in 1874, they brought the know
ledge and experience of Catholic faith and practice
to meet the zeal of the Evangelicals, and gradually
a school of missioners grew up, who learned to use
to the full the strength derived from this happy
alliance.

It is not too much to say that in the gradual evolu
tion of the modern parochial mission the Evangelical
fervour has been retained, while the sensational ele
ments have been discarded, and the main stress has
been laid on careful and systematic teaching.

Missions which are purely emotional have been
discredited, because experience has shown that the
apparent results quickly evaporate, and when the
first enthusiasm dies down the parish is left in the
condition of an extinct volcano.

This is now recognised by Churchmen of all
schools of thought, and the element of instruction
has largely increased. Very frequent, if not daily,

PAROCHIAL MISSIONS 77

celebrations of the Holy Communion are held in the
missions conducted by those, who are described as
Evangelical, if not Low Church, and their missions
encourage much more definite adhesion to Church
doctrine than was formerly the case. The writer's
own experience lies chiefly in missions, where parish
priest and missioner alike desire that souls, who are
converted to God, shall have the opportunity of
making a very real and definite confession of sin.
He would not say that the value of a mission may
be measured by the number of those who make
their confessions in the presence of a priest, but he
is confident that missions ought to have the result
of bringing the parish priest and his people so near
together, that the practice of confession comes to be
regarded as natural and right.

It may be of some service to explain how this
result can be attained. Of course a mission is an
exceptional spiritual enterprise, and ought not to be
attempted without weeks or months of prayerful
preparation. Its results depend not on the magnetic
power of the preacher, nor on the elaborate organisa
tion of the parish, but on the presence and power of
the Holy Ghost. It is in humble dependence on
Him that every effort is made to bring sinners to
repentance. The Love of GOD revealed in the Incar
nation, the Passion, the Resurrection of our Lord is
set before men's minds ; the nature and effects of

78 THE MINISTEY OF ABSOLUTION

sin are clearly described ; and the result is seen in a
serious concern about spiritual things such as is
scarcely ever perceived at any other time. It is
when men and women are pricked to the heart,
and crying out for definite instruction, that the
missioner is bound to tell them plainly of the
divinely appointed remedy for sin. It would be
cruel to conceal the fact that our Lord Jesus " hath
given power and commandment to His Ministers
to declare and pronounce to His people being penitent
the absolution and remission of their sins."

The moment comes when the most unlikely people
welcome the message of pardon and peace, which at
ordinary times seems so remote from their spiritual
experience.

If the missioner utterly disregards the counsels
showered upon him to be " moderate and safe,"
and is simply possessed with the longing to save
souls from sin, his ministry cannot but secure con
versions, which gladden the angels and leave the
human messenger humbled in the dust, yet supremely
thankful that GOD can use weak and sinful men
to achieve so much.

The kind of mission, then, which the writer ventures
to recommend is an attempt to combine and utilise
two converging lines of thought. The zeal of the
evangelist is tempered by the knowledge and the
discipline of the Catholic tradition. He distrusts

PAROCHIAL MISSIONS 79

mere excitement ; he will not be satisfied if he fills
the Church with those who find little or nothing
in his preaching, which differs from that of the
Methodist, or of such great revivalists as Messrs.
Moody and Sankey. While he recognises that their
work is mainly good, and true so far as it goes, he
is deeply conscious that something more is needed.
The awakened sinner must be clearly shown that
conversion is the beginning, not the end, of true
Christian life.

With this ideal kept steadily in view the missioner's
sermons and instructions are not merely a series of
repeated efforts to touch the heart and bend the
will ; they are the attempt to present great truths in
an orderly sequence, and they follow with more
or less exactness the order of the spiritual exercises
which are generally attributed to Ignatius of Loyola,
but which were in use long before his time.1

This has been the method of a large and increasing
school of missioners in England ever since the first
great London Mission held in 1874, and there has
been gradually evolved a scientific method in missions
which makes the work far more telling. There is no
need to insist that well-conducted missions invigorate
parochial life in many other directions, for the object
of the present chapter is to show how the missioner

1 See the Spiritual Exercises of Cisneros, a Spanish Benedictine
bom half a century before Ignatius,

80 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

can help the parish priest to get the ministry of
absolution recognised and used. When the founda
tions have been duly laid, and conviction of sin is
reached, the missioner teaches plainly the duty of
self-examination, and insists that none will profit by
the mission who do not try to face the fact of
personal sin. He is able sometimes to reach the
conscience by speaking about certain common sins
more plainly than is possible for the parish priest in
his ordinary ministry. He recommends to all who
are in earnest the use of forms of self-examination,
which not only bring to light hidden sins but
suggest a higher standard of moral and spiritual
effort. In very many cases men and women, who
take him at his word, are so deeply conscious of
their need that they drink in readily the instruction,
which follows later, on the ministry of absolution.

The missioner, of course, has nothing new to say.
He only repeats the teaching which the parish priest
ought to have given long before, or which he has
given without, in fact, reaching the hearts of his
people. He has no need to add anything to the
teaching of the Book of Common Prayer, and he has
no difficulty in showing how that is consistent with
Holy Scripture and with common sense.

The result is that during the mission many will
avail themselves of the opportunity of making a
first confession. It may never need to be repeated.

PAROCHIAL MISSIONS 8J

Souls restored to the life of grace will only need to
persevere in the life of prayer and communion, with
continual meditation on the Word of GOD, but the
experience of the mission and their first confession
can never be forgotten. If unhappily there comes a
relapse into serious sin, they know now where to find
the remedy.

Others will desire to make confessions in the
future with more or less of frequency and regularity.
If the parish priest is in full sympathy with the
teaching of the mission, and himself a penitent, he
will find that the way is open now to make confes
sion a recognised, and very important, part of his
ordinary ministry.

Much more might be said on the general subject
of the value of parochial missions in promoting a
deeper penitence, and a higher standard of devotion,
but rather than attempt to repeat what has been
well said by others I will only refer to the Missioned s
Handbook by my brother Paul Bull (Grant Richards,
1904).

I may be allowed to quote what he has said with
characteristic vigour.

" If the parish priest has instructed his people
faithfully in the doctrine and discipline of the
Church, every communicant will know that he is
free to make a special confession of his sins, if his
conscience is troubled. But this liberty is seldom

F

82 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

realised. Strong prejudice, persistent misrepresenta
tion, and falsehood have blinded people's minds to
the clear teaching of the English Church on this
matter. . . .

" Teaching on confession should be clear, downright,
and definite; the evasive and apologetic way in
which this matter of Church discipline has been
taught only arouses a natural suspicion; absolute
openness and frankness are necessary. . . .

" This form of confession is a recognition of our
corporate responsibility— that sin injures the whole
Communion of Saints, the Church, the family of
GOD, and therefore GOD bestows His pardon through
that Body. It ensures a careful self-examination, and
helps to a more full self-knowledge ; it humbles that
false pride which is the root of all sin ; it ensures
experienced counsel; it affords strong support in
times of temptation; it saves many souls from that
stagnation of the spiritual life which does not strive
after entire self-conquest, or aim at perfection ; it tests
the reality of repentance by submitting it to the
judgment of another person ; and it satisfies a deep
instinct of healthy human nature, which cannot bear
to conceal sin, but longs to unbosom itself, and to be
known for what it really is" (pp. 169-171).

VIII

THE FORM OF CONFESSION

THE use of a definite form of confession helps to
bring out the truth that confession should be made
to GOD. The priest is only the witness and the
minister of a gift which comes from the one and
only fountain of mercy. This truth is sometimes
distorted and sometimes forgotten. A great deal
of prejudice against confession is due to the fact that
people have imagined that confession to a priest is
taught as an alternative to confession to Almighty
GOD. The idea is of course preposterous. The
priest has no power of a merely personal sort ; he
is only the channel through which the blessing
comes; and this is why we emphasise the sacra
mental character of the whole transaction. If on
the one hand the position of the priest has been
distorted by exaggerating his powers; on the other
hand the true idea of confession is forgotten, if the
priest is regarded merely as a friend who offers
advice and sympathy. No doubt the confidential
talks which take place between a pastor and members

84 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

of his flock, who come to him privately, have a
very real value of their own. As they sit beside
the study fire hearts are opened and tongues are
loosed, and if the pastor is sympathetic he hears
a good deal of -autobiographical matter, in which
some genuine confession of sin is mixed up with
a good deal of self-pity or self-praise.

The situation is completely changed, and changed
for the better, if the priest is led to say, " Shall we
not try to disentangle your own wrong-doing from
the things which you could not help ? Perhaps your
doubts and perplexities, your clouded faith, and
your general distress are due to the fact of sin.
Will you not come with me to church, either now
or when you have taken more time to think and
pray about it ? Yours is' a case for confession, not
to man but to GOD." If the man has faith and
courage enough for this, the confession that he
makes in church will be more real and searching
in its self- accusation, and the priest, when he has
assumed his spiritual office, will gently but decisively
forbid the excuses and the palliatives which were
tolerable enough in merely friendly conversation.
The utter sincerity which this kind of confession
demands is made easier for both penitent and priest
by the knowledge that all which passes is under
the sacramental seal. The penitent knows that the
priest is bound to secrecy so absolute, that he must

THE FORM OF CONFESSION 85

not refer to the matter again [even to the penitent
himself without his permission.

In order to emphasise the distinction between a
friendly conversation and a very solemn religious
act, it is generally expedient that the priest should
wear a surplice and a stole.

This is specially important when the penitent is
a woman. The kind of confidential talks in his
study to which the priest naturally invites the men
and boys are eminently undesirable for the other
sex. If a woman wishes to disclose her secret sins,
the church is the only place where she can do so
with propriety, unless it is a case of serious illness,
in which the priest must if necessary hear con
fessions in a sick room. In either case the woman
will naturally desire that the dress and demeanour
of the priest shall make plain the sacred, and
ministerial, nature of his office.

The sacramental character of the confession, its
reference to Almighty GOD, is preserved by the use
of a traditional form. It may be well to quote here
a form in common use without claiming any special
authority for it.

When the penitent has knelt down, and perhaps
asked for a special blessing, the priest says : —

" May the Lord be in thy heart and on thy lips,
that thou mayest faithfully and fully confess thy
sins unto Him."

86 THE MINISTRY OP ABSOLUTION

Then the penitent begins : —

"I confess to GOD the Father Almighty, to His
only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, to GOD
the Holy Ghost, before the whole Company of
Heaven, and before thee, my father, that I have
sinned exceedingly in thought, word, and deed,
through my own fault, through my own most
grievous fault. (Since my last confession) I have
sinned (here follows the particular confession) . . .
For these and all my other sins which I cannot now
remember I am heartily sorry, firmly purpose amend
ment, and humbly ask pardon of Almighty GOD,
and of you, my father, penance, counsel, and absolu
tion. Wherefore I pray GOD the Father Almighty,
His only-begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord, and
GOD the Holy Ghost to have mercy upon me, and
thee, father, to pray to the Lord our GOD for
me. Amen."

The form raises several questions, some of which
have been discussed already, and some of which call
for further exposition.

We notice that the confession is made to GOD,
and that there is a distinct recognition of the
Communion of Saints. Sometimes this is empha
sised as in the ancient formula by adding after the
mention of the Blessed Trinity " to Blessed Mary and
all the Saints," but in the judgment of the present
writer, it is better not to use language which is

THE FORM OF CONFESSION 87

easily misunderstood, and apparently goes beyond
the limits of the Book of Common Prayer.

It is right that the priest should be addressed as
a spiritual father, for the term is the natural ex
pression of the relation thus established, but if the
penitent prefers to say " and before you His minister,"
the priest should be quite content. The title of
father should be gratefully and humbly accepted,
but not demanded as a right. Again, if the words
which express contrition seem too strong, as going
beyond the spiritual experience of the penitent, it
is well that he should substitute others which seem
more real and true. Many persons are relieved if
they are taught to say, " For these and all my other
sins I am sorry, and pray that I may be more sorry
than I am."

Next comes the more serious question whether
the penitent is bound to confess all his sins. It
is sometimes pointed out that the Prayer-book
suggests not the detailed enumeration of all his sins,
but the acknowledgment of some single weighty
matter. The question looms larger in controversial
writings than in actual practice.

Strictly speaking, even on the Roman Catholic
theory it is only necessary to confess deadly sins ;
and it is obviously impossible for any one to confess
all his sins. But the sinner who is really penitent,
and desires to tell out honestly the chief matters

88 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

that trouble his conscience, is generally quite willing
and anxious to confess all his other sins so far as he
knows them. If he only wishes to disclose a single
sin without any attempt to make a full confession
of all the rest, he is quite free to do so. It may
relieve his conscience and enable him to get advice,
but he is not entitled to absolution. When people
ask for absolution for a single sin, they show a mis
conception of the whole meaning of Divine forgive
ness. GOD does not forgive first one sin and then
another; He forgives not the sins but the sinner;
and the sinner is only capable of receiving forgive
ness when he is prepared to confess and forsake all
his sins so far as he can. The assurance of Divine for
giveness may indeed be otherwise obtained, but if it is
to reach the sinner through the lips of the priest, the
latter must know the nature of the sins committed.

Moreover, it must be clearly recognised that no
confession is really complete. " Who can tell how
oft he offendeth ? " " My sins are more in number
than the hairs of my head." Every true penitent
knows that. He can but do his best; but it
would, of course, render the confession null and
void if the penitent wilfully concealed any grave
sin, or circumstance which rendered a sin con
fessed still graver than it seemed. That is why the
priest is sometimes obliged to ask questions, e.g.
" Does the sin concern others besides yourself? Is it

THE FORM OF CONFESSION 89

a matter in which reparation is due? Are you in
danger of falling again into the same sin? Are
you willing to make restitution, and to avoid the
occasion of sin in the future ? "

Some of these points must be discussed still
further, but here it is only necessary to say that if a
man desires absolution he must make a full con
fession of all grave sins committed since his Baptism,
or since his last confession, so far as he is able to do
so. For instance, if he has lived in habitual disre
gard of the duties of public worship and of private
prayer he should say for how long a time that has
lasted. If he has been dishonest he must acknow
ledge the full extent of the wrong he has done, and
be ready to restore to the utmost of his power. If
he has injured another by robbing him or her of
innocence, or in any way making another the
accomplice of his sin, there are very definite ways
of proving the reality of his penitence. Of these
things the priest cannot judge unless the whole
case is laid before him. The pronouncing of the
absolution is not a mere form, but the expression of
a deliberate judgment on facts, known with all the
accuracy that is possible.

When the penitent has made his confession as
fully and honestly as he can, he is always taught
to add, "For these and all my other sins which I
know not of, and which I cannot now remember, I

90 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

am heartily sorry," &c., and he must be assured
that the absolution covers everything.

This is really important, for some persons after a
first confession are troubled by the notion that they
have left out sins, which should have been confessed.
They should be well assured that if they did their
best, and honestly confessed whatever grave sins
were before their mind, they were fully forgiven, and
to go back upon the past would be to doubt the
love of GOD, and the power of His redeeming grace.

It is possible that under special circumstances
and at very rare intervals it may be permissible to
repeat a general confession ; but the desire to do so
is generally the indication of a morbid and over
scrupulous conscience. A wise confessor will not
exactly forbid his penitent to make a general con
fession ; he will rather try to lead him into a fuller
trust, and a larger sense of the liberty wherewith
Christ has made His people free, encouraging not
morbid introspection, but rather the spirit of praise
and thanksgiving.

The form reminds us further that the penitent is
expected to ask for penance and advice, as well as
absolution, and sometimes it is necessary to explain
the terms. He should ask for penance, because he
owns that his sin deserves punishment, and even
when GOD freely forgives sin He does not remit the
punishment. It was so in the case of David. Nathan

THE FORM OF CONFESSION 91

heard his confession and pronounced his absolution.
He was commissioned to say, " The Lord hath pu*
away thy sin, thou shalt not die/' but he was
obliged to tell him that punishment would follow.
"Howbeit because by this deed thou hast given
great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blas
pheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall
die" (2 Sam. xii. 13, 14).

Sometimes the penitent needs to be reminded that
the worst consequence of sin is separation from GOD.
The absolution is the pledge and guarantee that this
is at an end ; but the minor consequences remain.
Forgiveness does not mean that the sinner is re
stored to the position in which he might have been,
had he never sinned. The man who has shattered
his health and dissipated his fortune by intemper
ance may be forgiven at the very moment of his
turning to GOD, but a large measure of suffering and
loss remains. The true penitent is glad to bear it.
He knows that it is his due. Over and above these
natural consequences of sin which remain, and
which we may describe as the penance exacted by
GOD Himself, it is customary to impose some act of
penance, which the penitent will perform in token
of his gratitude to GOD and submission to the
discipline of His Church.

Generally the penance imposed is something very
slight, such as the saying once or twice of a

92 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

penitential psalm, some special abstinence, or some
act of devotion. It is better that this should be
kept quite distinct from the course of conduct
recommended, as a means of self -discipline or as aid
to spiritual advance, or from the acts of reparation
and restitution which must be performed, or pro
mised, before absolution can be pronounced. It is
surely quite wrong to prescribe as a penance some
thing, which ought to form a normal part of daily
life in Christ.

When there is a danger of the doctrine of penance
being misunderstood, and even allowed to obscure
the truth that there is no sacrifice or satisfaction for
sin but in the Cross, it is better to assign no penance,
but to excite the gratitude and love of the penitent
by pointing to the fulness and freedom of the Divine
gift of pardon.

So again the penitent is taught to ask for counsel,
but it does not follow that the priest should give it.
It may be that he is entirely without the knowledge
or experience which would entitle him to offer
counsel to one far more advanced than himself in
spiritual things. He may realise that his penitent
has really come for absolution only, and that he
needs no other guidance than that of the Holy Ghost.
An inexperienced confessor sometimes wearies the
penitent, and wastes time, by offering advice which
is not needed or desired.

THE FORM OF CONFESSION 93

A penitent is in no way bound to place himself
under the direction and guidance of a confessor,
whom he approaches only for the sake of absolution,
and the priest must be careful not to assume more
authority than is necessary.

Finally, it is remarkable that some people come
to confession without any definite idea of seeking
absolution. The longing to unburden one's self is
often strongly felt, where there is no appreciation
of the truth that GOD has commissioned His Church
to absolve in His Name. The Prayer-book reminds
us that absolution is not to be given where it is
not asked for — the priest shall absolve him if he
humbly and heartily desire it.

The desire for absolution will not be felt until
there is a lively faith in the reality of Christ's presence
with His Church, manifest in the sacramental system
as the extension of His Incarnate life ; but the priest
who has before him a sinner, so convinced of sin that
he is willing to make a full and true confession, will
have no difficulty in showing that the word of absolu
tion, pronounced by GOD Himself through human
lips, is precisely the blessing that he needs.

IX

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION

AMONG the Latin Rules quoted in Chapter V., No.
XII. reminds us of the difficulty of determining when
absolution should be refused or delayed. Where
confessions are very rarely made, it may be generally
assumed that no one comes unless he is really
penitent and therefore capable of receiving absolution,
but there are now some parishes where the practice
of confession is so thoroughly established, that there
is a real danger lest, amidst a crowd of serious and
well-disposed penitents, there may be some who have
come with a light heart, and with no real intention
of forsaking sin and turning to GOD.

Priests in the Church of England are spared from
the very painful duty of receiving irreligious and
worldly people, who are driven to confession by
the pressure of public opinion, or by a rule from
which they cannot escape without renouncing all
definite membership in the Church. Our people
are not obliged to come if they wish to be married
in Church, and to receive Christian burial. Yet

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION 95

we too are tempted to lower the standard; to cry
" Peace, peace " where there is no peace, and to " heal
the hurt of GOD'S people lightly" (Jer. vi. 14).
Some will come to confession because they find
it easier to put their trust in a priest than to examine
their own conscience and make a real break with sin.
In view of this very real danger we must lay to
heart the words —

" If censure sleep will absolution hold ?
Will GOD affirm their acts of grace
Who never dare deny ? "

In each case the confessor must be satisfied that the
confession is as honest and complete as the penitent
can make it ; that there is a real turning to GOD ;
that he is ready to make whatever restitution is
possible ; and that there is a full purpose of amend
ment. Let us consider some typical cases. A man
may come with his conscience seriously troubled by
some definite breach of the Seventh or Eighth Com
mandment, but not conscious of the gravity of
other sins. He may, for instance, have lived in the
habitual neglect of public worship and of private
prayer. Surely he ought not to be absolved unless
he intends for the future to fulfil the ordinary and
elementary duties of the Christian life. He is not fit
for? -absolution and Communion if he has no definite
intention of living a Christian life. In a subsequent

96 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

chapter something must be said as to the rule of
life which should be suggested, but here we need
only remark that the confessor must often point out
that the breaches of the Second Table, which trouble
the conscience, are really due to something more
fundamental. The sinner has got wrong with GOD,
and needs nothing less than a thorough conversion.

Again, a young person may come to confession,
and while acknowledging other sins may be almost
unconscious of the gravity of his or her offences
against the Fifth Commandment. The confessor
must do his best to re-establish right relations in
the home, and he must insist that duty to GOD and
to His Church can be harmonised with duty to
parents. Carelessness in this respect, and failure to
support the legitimate authority of parents, has been
the cause of much prejudice against confession, and
has encouraged young people to imagine that they
can substitute the authority of an indulgent spiritual
father for that of an exacting parent.

Under the head of the Sixth Commandment very
grave questions sometimes perplex the confessor.
A murderer cannot rest without relieving his con
science of its awful burden, and the priest has to
share his secret. There is, of course, no question of
betraying the seal. The priest must at all costs
preserve silence, but he has to advise the penitent
and to grant or withhold absolution. If the life or

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION 97

liberty of another is at stake the murderer must be
encouraged to give himself up to justice, and until
he does so cannot be absolved.

Perhaps the penitent has already been tried and
acquitted, or the fact, that a murder was com
mitted, has never been detected. In that case the
murderer is not bound to incriminate himself, but
he is bound to make all possible reparation, and
he must be encouraged to bear whatever pain and
grief GOD lays upon him.

Under the Seventh Commandment questions some
times arise which are painful and cannot be touched
without grave peril to penitent and priest, but it is
unnecessary and unwise to go into the minute details
which are discussed ad nauseam in some Roman
Catholic text-books and by some Protestant contro
versialists, who seem to take a very unwholesome
delight in stirring up mud.

The priest must be specially on his guard, and I
would refer again to Dr. Pusey's caution, quoted
in Chapter I.

If husband or wife confess to a definite breach of
the marriage vow, it is generally right to recommend
that the sin be confessed to the injured partner, on
the ground that there can be no real happiness in
married life if there are secrets between the two. If
the wife's sin has led to imposing on her husband
another man's child, the obligation to confess it is

G

98 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

the greater, especially if questions not only of main
tenance but of inheritance are involved.

There are many cases in which one would not be
justified in insisting on this confession, and it should
seldom if ever be made a condition of absolution.

In all cases where sins against purity are confessed
in which other persons are concerned, absolution
should not be given unless there is a definite promise
to avoid occasions of sin ; and the priest must know
exactly where the danger lies, in order that he may
be satisfied of the penitent's intention to take real
measures to avoid recurrence. There are cases in
which reparation or restitution is due. Sometimes a
man may be encouraged to marry the woman he
has wronged, and he is bound to make provision for
her child.

If married people confess any wilful violations of
the ends for which Holy Matrimony was ordained
they must be induced to aim at the highest
standard, and their attention should be called to the
grave dangers which attend the attempt to evade
their natural responsibility.1

When personal sins which concern no one but the
penitent are confessed, the priest must help him to
distinguish between wilful and deliberate wrong-

1 See a paper on the Declining Birth-rate by the late Dr.
Taylor of Birmingham. London : Bailliere, Tindall & Co., Hen
rietta Street, Covent Garden.

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION 99

doing and sinful thoughts, which may be regarded
as temptation rather than sin, provided that there
is no assent of the will.

Sometimes in dealing with young men and boys it
is necessary for the priest to give the kind of advice
which should have been given by a father or
mother, and, if young women and girls need counsel
on matters of personal purity, they should be re
ferred to a competent adviser of their own sex.

It is specially necessary, in dealing with sins against
the Seventh Commandment, to show that the root of
sins, which cause such special shame, is neglect of
GOD. We must insist on the golden rule, " Walk in
the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh."

Under the Seventh Commandment a word must be
added about intemperance in meat and drink. Some
times the penitent must be shown that the other
difficulties of which he complains are largely due to
the fact that he has not learned to bridle his appetite,
and that the sins against purity are the result of
luxurious living. The duty of fasting and abstinence
depends not only on the precept of the Church, but
on the practical necessity of keeping under the body.

The penitent who confesses to habitual drunken
ness should be strongly urged to total abstinence,
and in some cases this "may be even made a condi
tion of absolution. One cannot be satisfied that a
man is really penitent about his intemperance

100 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

unless he is willing to make some very definite
promise to guard against the occasion of it.

Under the Eighth Commandment the question of
restitution is prominent, and the duty of the con
fessor is generally clear. If the penitent has been
guilty of direct dishonesty, he must be willing to
restore ; though it is not always necessary, or even
desirable, that he should give his name to the
injured party. He may restore what ,was stolen
anonymously, and sometimes the priest may assist
him to do so. But care is needed lest the priest
undertaking this duty is entangled in a difficulty,
from which he cannot escape without breaking the
seal of confession, or bringing suspicion and discredit
upon himself and his office.

For example, a case is quoted in which a penitent
on his deathbed entrusted to the priest a large sum
of money, in order to restore it on his behalf to one
from whom it had been stolen. The priest had
scarcely left tl*e> house when the penitent died, and
his relatives discovered that the money was missing.
Suspicion fell upon the priest, who could not deny
that he had taken the money, and could not explain
the circumstances without breaking the seal of
confession.

This is one of many difficult and peculiar cases
reported in Lehmkuhl's Casus Conscientite, Gury's,
and other manuals, and some acquaintance with

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION 101

them may be useful, but no study of casuistry will
profit a man who is not gifted with common sense.
Of course in the case referred to the priest should
not have accepted the commission without obtaining
leave from the penitent to disclose the facts, if it
were necessary to protect his honour. Cases of
restitution are much more complicated when the
penitent is really uncertain how far he is responsible
for the dishonesty of other people. Our casuistry
committee has often been asked to solve such
questions as these.

A shop assistant is expected by his employer to
tell lies about the goods he sells ; or a clerk is told
to write a letter which he knows to be false ; or a
school teacher to make false entries in a register ;
and these cases are often complicated to an extra
ordinary degree. It is generally the duty of the
confessor not to settle decisively questions in which
there is real doubt, but to encourage the penitent to
keep his own conscience tender, and to seek for the
guidance of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes a person
must be encouraged and strengthened to throw up a
situation, and to run all risks, rather than to consent
to falsehood and dishonesty. Sometimes penitents
must be reminded that there may be factors in the
case which they do not understand, and that gener
ally it is their duty to do as they are told without
seeking to judge.

102 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

It should be borne in mind that when the con
fessor is in doubt, he generally is able to ask advice
with the penitent's consent, when there is no pos
sibility of betraying his secrets ; and the advice can
be better obtained from some experienced priest
than from any collection of cases.

Amongst cases of restitution must be included
those in which the penitent acknowledges that he is
in debt. It is sometimes the duty of the confessor
to insist that the penitence is incomplete, and that
he cannot give absolution, until the penitent ac
knowledges his obligations to his creditors and makes
a definite attempt to set his affairs in order.

Of course an honest man may be in debt through
no fault of his own, and may be really unable to pay.
Such a one should not be refused absolution if he
is willing to do his best ; but if a man persists in
maintaining a course of extravagant and unnecessary
expenditure, while his creditors are unsatisfied, he
cannot be told too plainly that he is quite unfit to
communicate.

It is in cases of this sort that the whole influence
of the priest should be used, not to keep ill-living
people in some sort of relation with the Church, but
to encourage the highest standard of honesty and
truth.

Again, restitution is often due in the case of
breaches of the Ninth Commandment. If a man

ON WITHHOLDING ABSOLUTION 103

has been guilty of lying and slandering, and injured
his neighbour, not by picking his pocket, but by
defaming his character, he must be shown plainly
that the only reparation for a lie is to tell the truth.

It is sometimes a comparatively easy thing to tell
the truth to a priest in the confessional, but much
more than that is needed if a man is to recover the
moral integrity which the Christian law demands.
George Eliot has truly said in Romola :

" Under every guilty secret there is hidden a
brood of guilty wishes whose unwholesome, infecting
life is cherished by the darkness. The contaminating
effect of deeds often lies less in the commission than
in the consequent adjustment of our desires — the
enlistment of our self-interest on the side of falsity—
as on the other hand the purifying influence of
public confession springs from the fact that by it the
hope in lies is for ever swept away, and the soul
recovers its noble attitude of simplicity."

From this brief summary it will appear that the
cases in which absolution must be withheld are
those in which the penitent is not sufficiently
penitent to make restitution, or to avoid occasions
of sin; but sometimes in cases of very grave sin,
or of frequent relapse into sins already confessed, it
may be well to delay the absolution. Sometimes
a priest may well say to his penitent, " I do not doubt
that you are sorry, and I am sure that GOD forgives

104 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

you, but ought you not to prove your penitence by
waiting for a while before you come to Holy Com
munion? Deepen your penitence by prayer and
fasting, and above all by meditation on the Passion
of our Lord. When you feel that you can humbly
and heartily desire it and are ready for Holy Com
munion, come and receive your absolution." But
even in the very gravest cases one would not wish
to keep a penitent back for a very long period. To
wait for three months or until the coming Easter
should be long enough. It may sometimes be well
to tell the penitent that in the Primitive Church sins
like his were regarded with such abhorrence that he
would have been left excommunicate for seven years,
or even till the hour of his death. But that kind
of discipline has been tried and failed, and the power
of full and free forgiveness has proved to have
infinitely greater value. It was our Lord Himself
who said to a sinner, guilty of the gravest sin and
brought into His Presence against her will, yet tarry
ing of her own accord to hear His sentence, "Go
and sin no more."

It is the experience of those who have seen most
of penitence that it is not severity, but tenderness,
which produces the broken heart and builds up the
new life on the basis of gratitude and love.

X

THE RULE OF LIFE

IN an earlier chapter we saw that it is the main
business of the clergy to promote holiness of life ;
we must not be content with merely helping people
to keep clear of deadly sin. The confessional is
justly discredited when it appears to be only directed
to keeping sinful people in some sort of relation to
the Church. It is, or it ought to be, not only the
refuge of sinners but the school of saints, and in fact
we find that some of the very best people look to
their clergy to help them in their endeavours to live
closer to GOD. As Dr. Pusey has said, " It is well
known that when one has once tasted the ' benefits
of absolution' for heavier sins, and found good for
his soul in the special counsels of GOD'S Ministers,
he longs mostly to continue to open his griefs for
slighter sins into which he afterwards falls ; that he
finds it a healthful discipline for his soul, a safeguard
often by GOD'S grace, against sin; that GOD gives
him thereby lightness and gladness of heart, to ' go
on his way ' through the wilderness ' rejoicing.' Is

105

106 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

such a one to be repelled ? Is he to be told that
the remedy he seeks for is only for those more
deeply wounded, and bid to go into other folds, if
he still would have it ? "

Yes, indeed, it is a reproach to the Church of
England, if it is suggested that those who ask for
absolution, except under extraordinary circumstances,
must look elsewhere. ,

It is the ministry to souls who are bent upon
spiritual advance which makes the largest demand
upon the patience and zeal of the clergy. If we
have only a little experience of penitence ourselves,
we can gladly help those who are turning to GOD
from a life of utter carelessness and wilful sin, but
how can we train saints unless we are intent, as
becomes us, on advance in holiness ourselves?
Happily, this does not mean that we can do nothing
for those who are more advanced than ourselves.
We can point to the heights beyond, if we are at
least moving in the right direction. We do not
claim to be a separate caste, with different ideals
from the people to whom we minister. We help
them most when we let them see something of our
own difficulty. St. Paul is never so encouraging as
when he tells us of the intensity of his own conflict
with evil, as in Rom. vii. 14-24, or in 1 Cor. ix.
26, 27. A man must be in earnest if he dares to tell
a struggling penitent, "I therefore so run as not

THE RULE OF LIFE 107

uncertainly, so fight I not as beating the air ; but I
buffet my own body and bring it into bondage, lest
by any means after that I have preached to others I
myself should be rejected." It is the man who has
tamed his own body and has himself well in hand, to
whom penitents willingly turn ; and saints will listen
to the man who after years of spiritual endeavour
says, "Brethren, I count not myself yet to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting the
things which are behind and stretching forward to
the things which are before, I press on toward the
goal unto the prize of the high calling of GOD in
Christ Jesus" (Phil. iii. 13).

In the previous chapter it was pointed out that
one cannot absolve a person from other sins if he is
not prepared to live a Christian life, and therefore
one must be prepared to suggest some elementary
duties, which are indeed very generally neglected,
but without which there can be no Christian life
worthy of the name. Much help may be given to
beginners, and even to some who have professed
religion for years, if the priest who ministers to them
in private will suggest a rule of life. I purposely
speak of "suggestion" rather than direction, for I
believe the latter implies a method, which is bad for
both penitent and priest. Our business is not to en
slave the conscience, or to save a person from the
trouble of thinking for himself, but to place him in

108 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

such a relation to GOD that he will look for the con
tinual guidance of the Holy Ghost.

But the main lines may be laid down.

(I.) Clergy who do not hear confessions, or come into
intimate personal relation with souls, have no idea
how much even churchgoers and occasional com
municants neglect the duty of private prayer ; and
sometimes when prayers are said at all it means
little more than the vain repetition of a form learned
in childhood, which has no relation to the needs of
adult life.

It is surely right to insist that the very least that
is required is prayer in the morning and prayer at
night. For beginners it is necessary to suggest a
form, and that should be one really suited to the
penitent's condition; but in many cases it is even
more necessary to deliver souls from the bondage of
forms and encourage freedom in the lifting up of the
heart to GOD.

There is, of course, no limit to the help which
some good people naturally desire to obtain from
the priest in the matter of private prayer, if only
they feel that he knows anything about it ; and to
prepare ourselves for this higher ministry to advanc
ing souls calls for unceasing effort.

(II.) Again, if our penitents are to grow in grace
we must teach them how to use their Bibles, or in
other words, to practise meditation. Its importance

THE RULE OF LIFE 109

may be emphasised by an incident of personal ex
perience. Two years ago I was on a steamer between
Rangoon and Singapore when I met with a Japanese
Buddhist priest. He was at once disposed to make
friends, and came to me every morning for instruc
tion in Christianity, and every afternoon for in
struction in chess I I cannot be sure whether he
was more interested in Christianity than I was
interested in Buddhism, but both of us were anxious
to learn what we could of the other's religion. There
were certain points of agreement, and I was much
edified when my friend said, " Of course the really
important part of personal religion is the practice
of meditation. It is necessary not only for priests
and monks like ourselves, it is needed as much by
men and women in the world ; it gives to soldiers
and sailors courage and calmness in times of diffi
culty and danger." This might certainly be illus
trated by the courage and good temper exhibited by
the Japanese, who are largely under the influence
of Buddhist ideals. The habit of communing with
one's own heart is an admirable preservative against
panic and ill-temper.

Of course I could heartily agree with my Buddhist
friend, and I told him how some of us endeavoured
to practise meditation, but I was constrained to
point out the limitations of his method. The
Buddhist in meditation is only communing with

110 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

his own heart. The characteristic attitude of a
Buddhist saint in meditation, as exhibited in the
colossal Buddha at Kama Kura and in the images
of Buddhist saints so common in Burma and Japan,
is to be seated in an attitude of profound repose
with the face directed downwards. The Buddhist
saint in meditation steadily contemplates his own
interior — he makes the most of his own resources,
and doubtless derives from his meditation the
patience and self-reliance which do something to
secure calmness in danger, and which, ideally at
any rate, deliver him from the tumult of the
passions.

I pointed out to my friend that a Christian in
meditation means much more than that. He is not
looking down, and looking in, but looking up, and
waiting for a message from GOD. This, of course,
was quite alien to the Buddhist's creed, as he had
no idea of a personal GOD from whom any message
should come.

I trust this digression will be pardoned, and that
it will serve to emphasise the point, that the
Christian should be taught to place himself day by
day in the Presence of GOD, with some such prayer
upon his lips as this : " Speak, Lord, for Thy servant
heareth."

Believing that GOD speaks to His people by His
Word, it is impossible to exaggerate the importance

THE RULE OF LIFE 111

of the continual attitude of listening for His Voice
as we place ourselves at His Feet.

Even the poor sinner just turned from evil ways
must be told that he cannot worthily communicate
until he learns something of this, and our disciples
who wish to advance in holiness will long to know
far more than we can teach. Here we shall feel our
need of some serious study of ascetic theology. A
real and growing knowledge of the Bible, gained by
our own meditation upon it, is the necessary founda
tion, and next to that the confessor must be familiar
with such books as the Imitation of Christ, the
Spiritual Combat by Scupoli, and Law's Serious Call.
But we must not be surprised and disappointed if
some of the penitents soon pass into a realm of
spiritual experience beyond our reach. The true
priest will rejoice heartily when he commends his
penitent to the guidance of some more competent
adviser. It would be pitiful indeed if the ties
formed between priest and penitent were to hinder
the advancing Christian from getting better guid
ance elsewhere. The average priest can only hope
to be a general practitioner, who shows his wisdom
and humility by referring his penitents to a specialist
when the need appears ; but it is of the essence of
all wise dealing with souls that they should be
gradually taught to rely less and less on the guid
ance of the priest. There comes a time when it is

THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

best to say, " Taceant omnes doctores, sileant omnes
creaturse in conspectu tuo, Tu loquere solus
Domine."

(III.) Next to private prayer and meditation some
thing must be said of the duty of public worship.
It is the strength of the Roman Church that every
one of her children acknowledges that it is a primary
duty to go to Mass, at least on Sundays and certain
days of obligation. Whatever may be said against
the mechanical observance of such a rule, it must
be admitted that we have suffered grievously from
the absence of any clear rule, or even general custom.
Our best people give more time to public worship
than the Roman Catholics, and we sometimes attain
to a much higher ideal of corporate worship, but
amongst ourselves even good-living people are very
irregular and capricious in the observance of their
duty. I venture to submit that when a person
comes to us, in confession or otherwise, desiring
to set his life in order, we should leave him in no
doubt that it is a duty to come to the Lord's Service
on the Lord's Day. Whether we call it the Lord's
Supper, or Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, or
the Holy Mass, there is only one service which
can be properly described as the Lord's Service.
It is not in accordance with the true ideals of the
Church to absolve a sinner if he is not prepared to
come to the Lord's Service on the Lord's Day, when

THE RULE OF LIFE 113

the opportunity is within his reach. A vague
promise to receive Holy Communion once a month,
or to attend some other service every Sunday, is no
sufficient substitute for this elementary Christian
duty, and the state of religion in England would
be very different if this fact were resolutely faced,
and the arrangements of our public worship put
upon an intelligible basis, When once the elemen
tary duty of obedience to our Lord's own precept
about public worship is established, there is room
for great variety as to what should be recommended
to individuals about frequent Communions, and the
use of other opportunities for prayer and praise and
religious instruction.

Probably much harm is done by encouraging
children and young people, and new converts gener
ally, to attend very long services, and that much
more frequently than befits their spiritual condition.
When the minimum requirement is once recognised,
it is better to wait patiently till growth in grace
manifests itself in the growing desire for prayer and
praise.

Advice is often asked about frequency of Com
munion, and when once a penitent is restored to
the grace of GOD, and trying to live as a Christian
should, he may well be encouraged to communicate
with growing frequency. It is indeed lamentable
that many of our people continue to communicate

H

114 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

only once a ' month because that rule was suggested
at their Confirmation in the distant past. It may
have been quite a good rule to begin with, but it
is a very bad rule to go on with. If the monthly
Communions were real and fervent, surely there
would be the wish for something more, and no
instructed Churchman living the life of grace should
be permanently content with anything less than
Communion every Sunday and Holy Day. That will
be the natural consequence of the previous rule,
though there are young people and others who must
be warned not to attempt weekly Communions until
they have made some progress in the Christian life.
If a rule is asked about confession as a normal
preparation for Communion, provided that it is
clearly understood that the penitent is left quite
free, he may be encouraged to come once a year
or before the great festivals, or even in some cases
once a month, but certainly not before each Com
munion, provided that he is ready to come at any
time without delay, if he cannot otherwise receive
with a quiet conscience.

(IV.) As regards fasting and abstinence, we have
none of those detailed regulations which the Roman
Church imposes on her children. Days of fasting
and abstinence are clearly marked in the Calendar,
and ought to be announced in church, but the
method of observing them is left to the individual

THE RULE OF LIFE 115

conscience. We cannot be surprised that penitent
and faithful persons ask for guidance in the matter ;
and subject to the ultimate authority of the Bishop,
or in the absence of any guidance from him, the
priest must be prepared to give counsel. Sometimes
fasting must be strongly recommended as the cure
for sins of the flesh. There is no doubt that entire
or partial abstinence from meat reduces the force
of sensual desires, but great care is needed lest the
advice which is sorely needed by the average self-
indulgent Englishman should be unduly pressed
upon his wife and daughter. She, especially if she
is young and enthusiastic, is likely enough to fast
in a way which spoils her temper, injures her health,
and brings the whole thing into disrepute. Here
the confessor chiefly needs not rules but common
sense, and the experience and sympathy which come
from a real effort to bring his own flesh into sub
jection to the spirit. Moreover, in giving counsels
about abstinence and fasting we must bear in mind
that there is the question of general obedience to
authority, as well as the practical advantage of self-
denial.

We are thinking of the man who " humbly and
heartily desires the gift" of absolution, and we
must assume that in doing so he desires to submit
to the doctrine and discipline of the Church. He
can scarcely do this unless he accepts some personal

116 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

rule about the observance of those days which the
Church sets apart for a special purpose.

(V.) Almsgiving should certainly be included in a
rule of life, and if the confessor is consulted on the
point he must not abuse his privilege by advocating
charitable objects with which he is specially con
cerned. Nothing is more discreditable to the
ministry of absolution than the suspicion that the
penitent may be induced to dispose of his money
under the direction of the priest. And yet it is often
an obvious duty to tell the penitent that a certain pro
portion of an annual income or a weekly wage should
be set apart for GOD and the poor. Here, again, there
is a danger of substituting a legal bondage for the
true spirit of Christian liberality. To press the
obligation of the tithe is dangerous and misleading,
for the tenth part of an income, whatever was the
actual amount, might in one case be a generous gift,
and in another far too little. Moreover, a Christian
is not justified in marking off a certain proportion of
his income as due to charity, while he claims that all
the rest is his to spend as he pleases. We cannot get
rid of our responsibility so easily as that, for we are
only stewards, accountable to GOD for all that we
possess. In this, as in every other point of Christian
endeavour, our business is not to offer definite rules,
but to stimulate the conscience until it seek the
guidance of the Holy Ghost.

THE RULE OF LIFE 117

And the matter of almsgiving widens out into the
whole social question. If it is not the business of
the clergy to advocate special schemes of social
reform, still less is it our business to acquiesce in
things as they are. Our penitents must not imagine
that they can remain on good terms with our Lord
and His Church, if they are not greatly concerned
about the needs of the poor. Perhaps something
will happen when Christian people seriously lay to
heart the meaning of the social doctrine of the
Sermon on the Mount, and endeavour to reproduce,
at least in spirit, the state of things described in Acts
v. 32-35, in order that the resources of the rich
may be made available to the uttermost to meet
the necessities of the poor.

XI

PUBLIC DISCIPLINE AND PRIVATE PENANCE

IT does not come within the scope of this little book
to discuss at any length the relation between public
discipline and the private ministry of absolution,
but some acquaintance with the history of their
divergence is necessary in order to avoid confusion
and mistakes in practice. A very clear account of
the matter will be found in M. Batiffol's Etudes
d'Histoire, which includes an essay on ' ' Les Origines
de la Penitence " ; and the practical importance of
the historical study is marked by the fact that one
of the sessions at the Fulham Conference in 1901-2
was given up to the same subject. It must be
admitted freely that nearly all references to con
fession in the first three, if not the first five
centuries, have to do with the public restoration of
the lapsed to the communion of the Church, but
"from the time of Origen onwards we find frequent
exhortations to sinners to confess their sins to the
priest (i.e. the Bishop) when a guilty conscience
kept them from Communion." l

1 Dr. Mason, Fulham Conference Report, p. 22.
118

DISCIPLINE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 119

This confession appears to have been made
privately to the priest, but as preliminary to a public
acknowledgment and to the undergoing of a period
of penance, after which absolution was publicly
given. This, of course, was something very different
from the private confession and private absolution,
which took the place of public discipline later on.

The practice of the Catholic Church is illustrated
by her treatment of the three successive schisms,
Montanist, Novatianist, and Donatist. Tertullian
the Montanist, who in the De Pudicitia held
that certain sins, e.g. idolatry, blasphemy, murder,
adultery, were irremissible, may be refuted out of
his own earlier work, De Pcenitentia, written as a
Catholic. In the later work he bases his appalling
severity on 1 S. John v. 16, where he regards sin
unto death as being sin which can never be for
given.1

No doubt there were times when the Church
refused to absolve idolatry, adultery, and murder —
they were in effect reserved cases ; but that did not
imply that GOD could not and would not forgive
them. They were reserved for His judgment, and
until the hour of death the sinner must remain
excommunicate.

1 " Secundum hanc differentiam delictorum, pcenitentias quoque
conditio discriminatur ; alia erit quae veniam consequi possit, in
delicto scilicet remissibili, alia quae consequi nullo modo possit in
delicto scilicet irremissibili " (ii. 14-16).

120 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

Pope Callistus boldly claims that the Church has
power to absolve from all sins : " Ego et mcechise et
fornicationis delicta poanitentia functis dimitto."

As M. Batiffol remarks, it is " piquant " to observe
that Callistus in his reply to Tertullian uses the
arguments which the latter had used himself in
the De Pcenitentia. The parables of the lost sheep,
the lost piece of money, and the prodigal son all
suggest that there is no limit to the Divine for
giveness, and this forgiveness is ministered through
the Church.

" The edict of Pope Callistus has fixed the doctrine
and discipline on the power which the Church has
to remit sins, which it had been believed before
his time ought to be reserved to GOD." 1

The second stage is marked by the Novatian
crisis. In the Decian persecution many Christians
lapsed, and saved their lives by a formal act of
idolatry, so that there were many about whose treat
ment some decision was required. Moreover, the
difficulty of the situation was enhanced by the
value attached to the intercessions of the martyrs
or confessors, who, it was claimed, had not only
special influence with GOD to secure the pardon of
others, but who were supposed to exercise in
person the Church's absolving power.

Thus, as M. Batiffol puts it, "The equilibrium

1 Etudes d'Histoire, p. 111.

DISCIPLINE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

of the Church was compromised at once by the
number of the lapsed and by the interference of
the ' confessores.'"

S. Cyprian forbad his priests to give communion
to the lapsed on producing a ticket of communion
presented to them by a martyr. He regarded that
not only as a grave invasion of the prerogative of
the Bishop, but as indicating a misconception ot
the gravity of apostasy.

A quotation from a letter to his clergy exhibits
the contrast between this lax practice and his own
ideal :

" For that it is a most heinous sin, which the
persecution has forced them to commit, themselves
know who have committed it; since our Lord and
Judge has said, ' Whosoever shall confess Me before
men, him will I also confess before My Father which
is in heaven; but whosoever shall deny Me, him
will I also deny.' And again He has said, ' All sins
shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blas
phemies ; but he that shall blaspheme against the
Holy Ghost shall not have forgiveness, but is guilty
of eternal sin.' The blessed Apostle has also said,
' Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup
of devils ; ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table,
and of the table of devils.' He that conceals these
words from our brethren deceives them unhappy ;
that, whereas by undergoing due penance they might

THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

by their prayers and good works appease GOD as a
Father and merciful, they are seduced to perish more
utterly ; and they who might have raised themselves
again fall still lower. For whereas in lesser sins
sinners do penance for an. appointed time, and
according to the rules of discipline come to con
fession (e£ ojjLo\6yr)(ri<s) and by laying on of hands of the
Bishop and clergy recover the right of Communion ;
now while the time is unfinished and the persecution
still continues, and the peace of the Church is not
yet restored, they are admitted to Communion, their
names are offered, and penance not yet performed,
confession not yet made, the hands of the Bishops
and clergy not yet laid upon them, the Eucharist is
given to them." l

Here we have clearly marked the contrast between
these irregular proceedings and the disciplinary
system which S. Cyprian implies had previously
prevailed at Carthage.

There ought to be a period proportionate to the
gravity of the offence, during which the sinner does
penance; then, and not till then, is required the
public acknowledgment of the sin, which is absolved
by the Bishop and clergy with laying on of hands,
and this carried with it the "jus communicationis."

Without dwelling on S. Augustine's dealings with
the Donatists, it is enough to say that he vindicates

1 S. Cyprian's Epistles, xvi. 2 ; Library of the Fathers, pp. 40, 41,

DISCIPLINE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 123

the right of the Church to exercise the power of the
keys. Dr. Mason at the Fulham Conference quotes
his treply to Vincent. " Those who would exclude
adulterers from the place of repentance acted in a
wholly impious way, refusing health to the members
of Christ, and taking away the keys of the Church
from those who knocked, and setting themselves
against the merciful patience of GOD."

In summing up the results of his inquiry into the
practice of the fourth and fifth centuries, M. Batiffol
observes that the ordinary minister of penitence is
the Bishop. He is in each Church in a unique sense
the Sacerdos. He is the minister of Baptism; as
the valid Eucharist is the one which is celebrated by
him or by his deputy, so he is the ultimate authority
who determines whether or no the penitent is to be
restored to Communion. It is a very interesting but
difficult problem to determine how, and when, the
Bishops associated simple priests with themselves in
the exercise of the power of the keys. M. Batiffol
finds the beginning of the practice in the Liber
Pontificalis of Pope Simplicius,1 in whose time three
central churches in Rome were appointed as the
places where special priests should deal with candi
dates for Baptism and Penance.

At the Fulham Conference Dr. Moberly summed
up the situation in a few sentences which seem

1 A,D. 468-483.

124 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

to have been generally accepted by the Con
ference :

" There is no doubt that private confession first
appears in relation to public discipline. As various
causes by natural operation tended towards the
disuse of confession in public, private confession
(no longer as a preliminary but as a substitute)
claimed a larger place. This culminated in the
decree of the Lateran Council of 1215, which made
auricular confession obligatory, at least once a year,
upon all the faithful. This is the real starting-point
of the mediaeval period. There is no reason to
question the honesty and devoutness of purpose of
those who imposed the rule. It began as a practical
discipline for holiness. Speculative theological ex
planation did not lead up to but followed after the
establishment of the practice. The whole fabric of
the mediaeval theology on the subject gradually
grew out of, and was based upon, the assumption of
the universal necessity of auricular confession.1'

Now the Church of England in her Prayer-book,
going back behind all this, (i.) expresses a longing for
the restoration of primitive discipline, (ii.) abolishes
the necessity of confession for all, and (iii.) leaves
room for a large use of private confession, but upon
a strictly voluntary basis.

In practice it is important for the clergy to re
member that they have no right to repel any from

DISCIPLINE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 125

the Lord's Table without reference to the Bishop.
(See the rubric at the commencement of the Com
munion Office.) On the Bishop, as in primitive times,
lies the responsibility of excluding notorious evil
livers, and determining the terms on which those
who have given scandal may be restored to com
munion. This episcopal function may of course be
delegated to the parish priest to whom is entrusted
a cure of souls, but the priest cannot claim any
authority to act independently of the Bishop. The
private ministry to individuals who confess sin,
which may or may not be open and notorious, rests
on a different basis. The coming of the penitent
is voluntary, and his acceptance of the decision of
the priest is voluntary also. If the priest refuses
absolution he cannot prevent the penitent from
coming to Holy Communion if he chooses to do so.
That can only be prevented by public action based
on public information ; but on the purely voluntary
basis accepted by priest and penitent alike, there
is a great need for episcopal counsel as to what terms
should be imposed. Though we can put no limit
to the possibilities of Divine forgiveness, it must
be right to insist that certain sins are of so grave
a character, that the sinner should give ample
proof of his penitence before he presumes to approach
the Table of the Lord.

While we entirely repudiate the whole mediseval

126 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

system of compulsion, there is room for a doctrine
and practice of reserving certain cases to the Bishop
—or in other words, of limiting the powers which
he delegates to the priest.

For further light on the historical question of
the relation between public discipline and private
penance, reference should be made to the long-
article by M. Vacandard in the Dictionnaire de
Theologie Catholique, edited by M. Vacant (Letouzas :
Paris, 1906), and to an article by Dr. Swete in the
Journal of Theological Studies, April 1903 ; and, of
course, Morinus, Commentarius Historicus de Sacra
mento Pcenitentiw, is a storehouse of information.

XII

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS

IF this little book serves its purpose of awakening
the clergy to the need of confession for themselves,
and for a considerable number of the souls committed
to their care, some will ask for much more guidance
in the matter than the present writer is able to give,
and so it may be useful to add some notes on books
likely to be useful. A fairly full bibliography is
given in a leaflet (42, 6) published by the Central
Society of Sacred Study in April 1910. Under the
head of" Pastoralia " the paper quite rightly combines
Christian Ethics and Casuistry, and it is important
to remember that the priest, who would be a prudent
guide of souls, needs a sound knowledge of principles
even more than he needs some acquaintance with
the way in which they are applied to particular
cases. Therefore reference is rightly made to general
works such as Lecky's History of European Morals ;
Dill's Roman Society from Nero to Aurelius ; Bigg's
The Church's Task in the Roman Empire ; and behind
this must lie the continual study of Christian ethics,

127

128 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

as exhibited in the Sermon on the Mount, the Epistle
of S. James, and in many passages in S. Paul's
Epistles, while familiarity with the books of Proverbs
and Ecclesiasticus (including many chapters which
are unfortunately omitted from the Lectionary) ought
to develop in the priest the sanctified common sense
which is so essential to his work.

Bishop Gore's Lectures on the Sermon on the
Mount, Dr. Charles Kobinson's Studies in the Char
acter of Christ, Dr. Westcott's essay on " The Church
in the World " in his Epistles of S. John, are of course
very suggestive. Amongst patristic treatises the
Central Society of Sacred Study refers to the
Apologies of Aristides and Justin Martyr, Chrysos-
tom's Homilies, &c.

To these is added Tertullian, De Pcenitentia, and
special attention should be paid to Dr. Pusey's note,
to which reference was made in Chapter II. Many
of S. Augustine's works are mentioned, but two of
quite inestimable value are omitted, namely, The
Confessions, and the little treatise, De Rudibus
Catechizandis. The former is of course familiar to
every priest, who desires to be " penitent himself
that he may speak to the hearts of penitents," and
the latter is full of useful counsels to one who has
to prepare candidates for Baptism and Confirmation.

The editors of the leaflet refer to Gregory the
Great and his Moralia super Job, but they omit

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS 129

any reference to his treatise, De Cura Pastorali. That
was a treatise which S. Augustine of Canterbury
brought with him into England, and nearly 300
years later King Alfred the Great turned it into
English, with the intention of sending a copy to
every bishopric in his kingdom.

For the instruction of the clergy in what S. Gregory
calls " Ars Artium — regimen animarum," no modern
treatise can enable us to dispense with his own
Pastorale or S. Chrysostom's De Sacerdotio.

Passing from the Fathers to the mediaeval period,
we are rightly reminded that to understand the ethics
of the schoolmen it is necessary to be acquainted with
the ethics of Aristotle, and in S. Thomas Aquinas
"the Philosopher" exercises an authority second
only to that of the Fathers and Holy Scripture.

Many of our most trusted spiritual guides owe a
great debt to the University, which has given to the
ethics of Aristotle a central place in its studies.
While the teaching of definite Christian morals was
too often neglected, the average Oxford man gained
systematic instruction in the distinctions between
vice and virtue, in the principles which underlie the
formation of habits, from the heathen philosopher,
whom Dante calls :

" The Master of the sapient throng
Seated amid the philosophic train.
Him all admire, all pay him reverence due."
Inferno, iv. 128-130, Gary's translation.

I

130 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

The Secunda Secunda of S. Thomas Aquinas'
Summa is the greatest systematic treatise on Christian
ethics, and there are very few cases of conscience
on which it does not throw light. It is well worth
while to be familiar with the method of the Summa.
Almost every conceivable question about faith and
morals is clearly faced. The opposite conclusions,
from which S. Thomas dissents, are first clearly
stated, then comes the "contra," generally a text
from Holy Scripture, or a quotation from a Father,
and that is followed by the reply in which S. Thomas
expresses what he believes to be the mind of the
Church; and finally he gives detailed answers to
the opinions which he rejects. From the Secunda
Secundte Bishop Paget of Oxford drew the substance
of his illuminating "Essay concerning Accidie " l pre
fixed to a set of sermons called The Spirit of Dis
cipline. Both the Bishop's essay and the passage
in the Summa are of the greatest value to those,
who may be often called to minister to people who
suffer from weariness or sloth, and find it hard to
tell where one ends and the other begins. So far
as it is necessary for the priest to inquire further
into questions which arise under the Seventh Com
mandment, he will find all that he needs under
Questio cliv., De partibus luxurite.

In addition to the study of his analysis of the
cardinal and theological virtues and the opposite
1 Now published separately, price Is. Longmans, March 1912.

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS 137

chairmanship of Dr. Wace. Two full days were
spent considering :

1. The meaning of our Lord's words (in S. John

xx. 22-23; S. Matt, xviii. 18), and their use
in the Ordinal, as affecting the conception of
the priesthood.

2. The practice of the Church :

(a) In primitive times.
(6) In the middle ages.

3. The meaning of the Anglican Formularies, and

the limits of doctrine and practice which
they allow.

4. Practical considerations.

(a) The treatment of penitents.

(b) The special training of the minister.

It was inevitable from the composition of the Con
ference that while many misunderstandings were
removed, and some historical points cleared up,
there was no agreement as to the extent to which
confession should be encouraged. It may be well
here to quote from the chairman's report to the
Bishop (p. 110) :

"On the practical question, there was a deep
divergence of opinion in the Conference, some
members holding that the practice of confession and
absolution ought to be encouraged, as of great value
for the spiritual and moral life of men and women :
while others were deeply convinced that its general

138 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

encouragement was most undesirable, that it should
be treated as entirely exceptional, and that the
highest form of Christian life and faith would dis-

O

pense with it and discourage it."

This divergence sufficiently explains the fact that
the Conference made little or no attempt to grapple
with the two last points submitted by the Bishop.
We are still waiting for any authoritative guidance
from the Bishops as to the treatment of penitents,
and the special training of the minister.

It would be a great advantage if a similar Confer
ence could be held, [prepared to go on where the
former one left off. Assuming that there is a legiti
mate place for confession, surely it would be wise
for the Bishops to procure for the younger clergy
guidance in a matter where there are great oppor
tunities of doing good, and great possibilities of doing
harm. In the absence of authoritative guidance
inspired by a spirit of loyalty to the standards of the
English Church, we cannot be surprised that while
the vast majority of our priests are neglecting the
duty of hearing confessions, others are relying far
too much on the text-books of the Roman Church.
The present writer has tried to hold the balance.
To some he may seem presumptuous where he
differs from Lehmkuhl or Gaume, while to others
he may appear to advocate a wide departure from
Anglican tradition.

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS 135

of Clewer, first published in 1865, gives a full and
careful history of the doctrine, including a chapter
on the attitude of English divines since the Refor
mation. Amongst these it must be remembered
of Richard Hooker, that if his teaching was so
carefully balanced that his authority is claimed by
advocates on either side, his own practice was to use
confession. Amongst recent books should be men
tioned The Use of Penitence, by Edward Churton,
formerly Bishop of Nassau (Mowbrays, 1905). There
are few of our Bishops who have not written more or
less fully on the subjects in one or other of their
charges, and though the usual attitude has been one
of extreme caution, nearly all of them have admitted
that there is a legitimate place for confession.

In Chapter II. quotations are given from the
charges of Archbishop Temple and Bishop Words
worth of Salisbury, and side by side with them may
be placed a quotation from Dr. Drury, now Bishop of
Ripon. Dr. Drury was a member of the Fulham
Conference on Confession, and it is evident from his
book on Confession and Absolution, published in the
following year, that he had gained much from the
interchange of views with the representatives of other
schools of thought. He expresses in particular, on
p. 210, his obligation to Dr. Moberly. In his conclud
ing chapters Bishop Drury writes as follows :

" Private confession as taught by our Church is

136 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

but one expression of that freedom of pastoral in
tercourse, that fullest possible confidence between
minister and people, which ought to be encouraged
and developed, and which a false view of confession
and absolution is tending too much to diminish. In
that happy relationship which should exist between
the pastor and his flock, the value of confession
in time of need cannot be denied ; but the wide
spread feeling that something very different from
the discipline laid down in the sixteenth, and
more freely urged in the succeeding century, is
being introduced into our Keformed Church, has
much to do with the unhappy lack of mutual con
fidence in pastoral relations which all good men
deplore" (p. 280).

It is too much to hope that the Bishop would
accept this little book as advocating only the use of
confession which he desired to encourage, but I
trust that there is nothing which goes beyond the
claim, which has been consistently made by loyal
sons of the English Church, and which has always
been tolerated, if not wholly approved, by her
rulers.

The Report of the Fulham Conference, to which
reference has been made in Chapter XL (Longmans,
1902), will repay careful study. At the request of the
Bishop of London, excellent representatives of every
phase of Anglican opinion met at Fulham under the

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS 133

Enchiridion Morale of Bucceroni, who also is a
Jesuit. " It contains select decrees and definitions
of the Holy See, of (Ecumenical Councils, and of the
Holy Roman Congregations which are of most use to
professors of moral philosophy and confessors." A
revised edition with the most recent decrees was
published in 1905.

The C.S.S.S. leaflet refers to Schneider's Manuale
Sacerdotum, and Rickaby's Moral Theology (Long
mans, 5s.) ; and similar instructions to the young
priest on hearing confessions are given in many
Roman text-books, but English books are scarce
indeed. Jeremy Taylor's Ductor Dubitantium and
Bishop Sanderson's Cases of Conscience do not meet
modern needs. Marshall's Penitential Discipline,
published in 1717, was republished in the Library of
Anglo-Catholic Theology, and is described by Bishop
Gore as one of its chief glories. Skinner's Synopsis
of Moral and Ascetical Theology is manifestly in
complete. It is merely the outline of a great work
which is still waiting the arrival of its author. It
was the beginning of a large scheme, as yet un
realised, to provide a manual of moral theology for
the use of priests in the English Church. The
unfinished preface of the author indicated the breadth
of view and the sound judgment which Mr. Skinner
brought to his task, but his untimely death deprived
the Church of all but a fragment of the projected

134 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

scheme. The late Canon T. T. Carter of Clewer,
who wrote the preface in 1882, says, " Alas ! the
task was never completed. He had scarcely begun,
in the Introduction, to use the stores of material in
which he was probably richer than any other English
priest. This work is sent forth in the hope that it
may prove to be a precious storehouse of information,
and an important guide on subjects of the utmost
moment, and for which no similar help has ever
been provided or even attempted among us."

The American Church has done something. Dr.
Elmendorf, of the Western Theological Seminary,
published in 1892 The Elements of Moral Theology,
based on the Summa Theologize of S. Thomas Aquinas,
which exhibits the imprimatur of many American
Bishops. About the same time Dr. W. W. Webb,
now Bishop of Milwaukee, published The Cure of
Souls — A Manual for the Clergy based chiefly upon
English and Oriental authorities. A second edition
of this work appeared in 1910, and it is almost the
only book which undertakes to give a priest of the
Anglican Communion systematic guidance in the
work of hearing confessions.

There is of course no lack of books explaining the
doctrine of confession as it affects the laity, and
there are plenty of manuals for communicants which
take for granted its more or less frequent use. The
Doctrine of Confession, by the Rev. T. T. Carter

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS 131

vices, S. Thomas Aquinas should be consulted as a
safe guide to the theory and practice of prayer, and
if the confessor is called upon to advise his penitent
about the ''religious life" in the technical sense, he
will find in this great treatise much that he ought to
know, S. Thomas gives far sounder teaching about
the true nature and limits of obedience, than that
which is current in circles where the ideals of
S. Ignatius Loyola have usurped too prominent a
place. S. Thomas distinguishes very clearly between
the obedience which is due from all to their natural
superiors, together with the obedience rightly pro
fessed by religious " ad cumulum perfectionis," and
condemns a third form of obedience which he calls
" indiscreta." (See II. 2, 104, v.)

The best known of the older Roman Catholic
text-books are those of Alfonso Liguori, Gury, and
Gaume, whose work was translated by Dr. Pusey
(omitting the treatment of the Seventh Command
ment), but they should be read, if at all, with the
remembrance that they are full of matter which
no one ought to study unless it is very clearly his
duty to do so. The Provincial Letters of Pascal con
tain the most scathing exposure of the degradation
of morals, for which the doctrine of Probabilism
was responsible, and no one should embark on
the study of casuistry without a clear warning as

to the dangers, which arise when the priest is

12

132 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

anxious to make the practice of confession easy and
attractive.

One who wishes to know the worst that can be
said against the practice of confession and absolution
will find it in the three large volumes of Dr. H. C.
Lea on Auricular Confession and Indulgences, and
the same author has published on the same scale a
History of the Inquisition. He also published in
1867 two large volumes on Sacerdotal Celibacy, and
of this a third and revised edition appeared in 1907.
One cannot deny the learning of these ponderous
volumes, but they betray the writer's incapacity for
seeing the better side of the Catholic position.
Lehmkuhl's Moralis Theologia, published in 1887
and dedicated to the General of the Jesuits, is a book
to which reference should be made by those who
wish to know how the Roman Catholics are treating
some of the perplexing problems which arise out of
modern social conditions, and a companion volume,
Casus Conscientite, was published in 1903. It will be
observed that the Roman Church is not afraid to
incur a vast amount of obloquy, and alienate many,
whose support would be of value, by insisting on the
highest standard of purity, and by refusing to tole
rate that misuse of marriage which is unhappily
prevalent, and very insufficiently rebuked among
ourselves.

Of even more importance than Lehmkuhl is the

NOTES ON SOME USEFUL BOOKS 139

Finally, reference should be made to a book
which, while it is the work of a Roman Catholic, is
a possession to be prized by every priest, as priests
and laymen alike prize the Imitation of Christ by
Thomas a Kempis, or the Spiritual Combat by
Laurence Scupoli. The Memoriale mt% Sacerdotalis
of Arvisenet was translated, and adapted for the
use of English Churchmen, by Bishop Forbes of
Brechin, who found it not difficult to eliminate the
occasional phrases which are inconsistent with our
standards. However, in the judgment of the present
writer such translations and adaptations ought not
be required, in the case of books to be used by
intelligent and instructed people. The English
priest who uses the Memoriale in the original, as he
uses the Imitation, will find himself continually
incited to aim at the kind of life which befits a
sinner, who is called to lead others to the feet of his
Redeemer. Let him read again and again the
chapter "De zelo animarum," "De vigilantia Pas-
torali," and not least that "De confessionum
auditione."

"Scientiam quaere in libris per studium: sapien-
tiam vero prudentise, misericordise et sequitatis trahe
de coalis per orationem.

" O Sacerdos ! O tu prsesertim, qui curam habes
animarum] vide et perpende qualem delictorum

140 THE MINISTRY OF ABSOLUTION

sarcinam super caput tuam congeris, si oves tuas ad
tribunal frequenter vocare, et accedentes audire
negligis; vel si audiens, sine cura, sine zelo, sine
sequitate rem facis.

"Quid respond ebis, quando ad tribunal meum
vocatus, a me judicaberis et accusaberis ab ovibus
tuis, dicentibus: Periimus, quia non habuimus
hominem qui nos in piscinam projiceret?"1

1 Memorials, ch. 58.

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON &* Co.
Edinburgh &> London.

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